Beat Alaves, Real Madrid Refuse to Surrender to Barcelona

JAKARTA - Real Madrid has not given up chasing Barcelona for the Spanish La Liga title. Especially after Madrid beat Deportivo Alaves 2-1 in a duel at home at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, Madrid, Wednesday, April 22, 2026 early morning WIB.

Forward Kylian Mbappe again showed his sharpness. Mbappe scored 24 goals which confirmed him as the league's top scorer. However, the captain of the French national team has not been able to bring Madrid back to the top of the standings.

Even though there was Mbappe, Madrid also failed in the Champions League and was eliminated in the Copa del Rey. In addition, Los Merengues failed to win the Supercopa de Espana which led to the dismissal of Xabi Alonso.

In the match against Alaves, Mbappe also opened Madrid's victory. Furthermore, Vinicius Junior consolidated the team's advantage to 2-0. Alaves narrowed the defeat through a goal in injury time.

The victory at least ended the failure to win in the last two matches in the domestic competition and added Madrid's points to 73. They can also reduce the points gap with Barca to six.

However, Barca will get further away if they beat their guests Celta Vigo. However, Madrid refused to give up chasing their rivals. With six more games left, Madrid still have a chance to catch up with Barca while hoping that Hansi Flick's team will slip and lose points.

"There are still six matches to be played. The next match is three days away. Our goal is to win the match. That's the team's goal," said Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa as quoted by france24.

Arbeloa also did not mind if he was under pressure because he could not lift the team. This gave rise to news that he would not get a permanent contract. According to information, Juergen Klopp will soon get off the mountain by returning to manage the club. And the destination of the former Liverpool manager is none other than Madrid.

"I don't care about the spotlight that is aimed at me. That is the problem of Real Madrid," he said again.

Meanwhile, Alaves itself is threatened with relegation. The defeat in the match made them still struggling in the lower ranks. Alaves is ranked 17th or one strip above the relegation zone with 33 points. They are also only one point ahead of Elche who occupy the 18th position.

In that match, Madrid had difficulty facing Alaves' offensive game. Moreover, the visiting team has a good record because they are unbeaten in the last four league matches.

Even the team coached by Quique Sanchez Flores who had played in Madrid for two years had threatened Andriy Lunin's goal through Angel Perez. Only his kick could still be blocked by Lunin. Likewise, the efforts of striker Toni Martinez also did not produce a goal.

Madrid themselves began to rise and put pressure on Alaves. Los Blancos' efforts finally succeeded after several failures.

In the 30th minute, Mbappe who was outside the penalty box fired a hard shot at the goal. Only the ball hit the Alaves player so that it slightly changed direction and caused goalkeeper Antonio Sivera to die.

The score 1-0 for Madrid which makes them more aggressive pressing the Alaves defense. Mbappe almost added a goal when receiving a pass from Vinicius Jr. But his kick could still be blocked by Sivera.

Furthermore, defender Eder Militao also had the opportunity to score a goal. Only his shot still crossed the crossbar. There was no change in the score and it was still 1-0 for Madrid when the first half ended.

Entering the second half, Madrid played more aggressively. However, Alaves also resisted and almost equalized through Martinez. The opportunity could still be thwarted by Lunin.

Not long after, Madrid managed to add a goal. This time Vinicius Jr's spectacular kick from a distance successfully broke into Sivera's goal. The goal that was created when the match was only five minutes changed the score to 2-0 for Madrid.

Madrid continued to play aggressively and tried to add a goal. A good opportunity was obtained by Brahim Diaz. However, his chance was brilliantly thwarted by the goalkeeper.

Alaves finally broke the deadlock in injury time. He broke into the Madrid goal in the 90th minute +3 which reduced the defeat to 2-1. The score also lasted until the end of the match.