Valverde, Güler and Mbappé score as Real Madrid win 3-0 at Valencia, level with Barça

Real Madrid won 3-0 at Valencia on Saturday night, with goals from Fede Valverde, Arda Güler and Kylian Mbappé, and moved level with Barcelona on 30 points at the top of LaLiga. Barcelona have played a game fewer and visit third-placed Atlético Madrid on Sunday at 21:00.

The match began with a minute's silence for Tenerife player Jesús de Miguel, who died on Tuesday; the players wore a commemorative shirt with the number 9 and laid flowers in the centre of the pitch. Valverde opened the scoring in the 28th minute. Valencia's Pablo Maffeo had pushed Mbappé at the edge of the box, the free kick hit the wall and the rebound fell to Valverde, who drove it low across Valencia goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski. Eight minutes later Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham's cross reached Güler, who finished unmarked to make it 2-0 at the break. In the 75th minute Güler put Mbappé through and the Frenchman dribbled round Dimitrievski for the third, his 13th league goal of the season according to La Vanguardia. Our top-scorers table, which had him on 12 before the match, puts him behind Barcelona's Raphinha on 15.

Valencia's best moments came before that opening goal. After a loss of possession by Real Madrid's Aurélien Tchouaméni, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois saved a shot from Valencia's Aarón Mayol in the 19th minute, and Valencia then put the ball in the net from the corner, only for Guido Rodríguez's goal to be ruled out for offside. Our match data has Real Madrid ahead 19 shots to four, and 11 on target to two. Valencia captain José Luis Gayà was sent off with a straight red card in the 79th minute for bringing down Mbappé as he broke clear. Madrid coach José Mourinho said that from a distance the red card "looks very clear" to him.

Eight wins in a row

It was Madrid's eighth straight win in LaLiga and the Champions League combined, a run that includes the Clásico, and Valverde had already given the team the win in Athens on Wednesday. Mourinho said winning at Real Madrid "has to be the normal thing" and that, "from my experience, this team smells good".

Valencia in the drop zone

Valencia are 19th on 9 points, one behind Elche and Levante (17th and 18th on 10, both with a game in hand), and have taken 2 points from seven home league games: no wins, two draws and five defeats, with 3 goals scored and 14 conceded, according to our standings. Coach Javier Aguirre, in charge since the end of September, said: "They were superior and deserved to win." He added: "We are in debt, we are in the relegation places and we have to keep working." It was also the last league meeting of the two clubs at the old Mestalla before Valencia's move to the Nou Mestalla in summer 2027, Telemadrid notes.

Half-time row in the tunnel

Tempers rose in the closing minutes of the first half, with Telemadrid reporting a small scuffle between players, and a separate incident followed in the tunnel. According to the report of referee Francisco José Hernández Maeso, whose text was printed by Mundo Deportivo, Valencia sporting director Braulio Vázquez confronted the first assistant referee, repeatedly saying it was not a foul, and said the same to the referee as he walked past; police officers then had to identify him, hold him and move him away. The paper notes that the report records no clash between players and that any sanction is for the RFEF's disciplinary committee. Aguirre said he did not know what had happened: he went into the dressing room first and had, in his words, "no idea".

What Sunday night decides

A Barcelona win at the Metropolitano takes them to 33 points and a draw to 31, while an Atlético win would put Atlético top on 31, ahead of Madrid and Barcelona on 30.