Rayo Vallecano – Real Madrid summary: score, goals and highlights, LaLiga Santander

Rayo Vallecano taught Real Madrid a lesson in intensity and discipline

On a night when most would have expected Real Madrid to take the three points that were up for grabs, it was glaringly clear from the first kick of the ball that such a task would be very complicated to complete.

Playing at home, Rayo Vallecano were all over their city neighbors for the entirety of the match. Often storming down the left side – Dani Carvajal’s responsibility – Isi Palazon and Sergio Camello were pulling strings all night, with a mixture of incredible work ethic and classy play in tight spaces. Yet, mention should also be made of Fran Garcia and Santi Comesaña. Indeed, it was those two who provided the first goal of the night after some intricate play on the left. Comesaña met Garcia’s cross perfectly at the penalty spot and with a side footed finish, guided the ball into the bottom right corner of Courtois’ goal.

From there, los ‘Franjirrojos’ continued to pile on the pressure and in truth looked likely to increase their lead, but against the run of play Madrid equalized through Luka Modric, who converted a penalty after Marco Asensio was controversially fouled. Not long after, the home side found themselves behind after Éder Militão produced a stellar header off of a corner to beat Stole Dimitrievski in Rayo’s goal.

That moment only seemed to spur Rayo to even greater levels of intensity. Just minutes later, it was Alvaro Garcia who leveled the score with a thunderous shot from the left side of Madrid’s goal. Though Courtois managed to get a hand to the ball, the force of the shot was too great and so he could only deflect it into the roof of the net. Ultimately, with just over 20 minutes left and minus their coach – Andoni Iraola was shown a red card on the bench – Rayo put in a defensively disciplined shift to close out the game. On top of that, they were then rewarded when an isolated Dani Carvajal clearly handled the ball in the area when faced with Isi Palazon.  Oscar Trejo would be the man tasked with the resulting penalty and curiously, actually had to take it twice after the referee penalized Courtois for moving too early.

Madrid for their part was not necessarily poor in the game, but rather overawed to a certain extent by the wave after wave of Rayo pressure. One has to wonder if Rayo haven’t put the rest of the league on notice with their surprise win. They came into the game saying they had no reason to fear Madrid and it was definitely a case of ‘so said, so done’ on the night. With that, we wish you farewell and we hope you enjoyed our live text coverage of Rayo Vallecano vs Real Madrid which ended 3-2 in Rayo’s favor.