Kylian Mbappe Ends Drought as Real Madrid Struggles
Kylian Mbappe ended his La Liga drought, Vinicius Junior ripped one in from distance, and Real Madrid still walked off to a chorus of jeers. That’s the mood at the Santiago Bernabeu right now: even a 2-1 win over Alaves can’t quiet the tension.
This was a night Madrid needed to steady themselves. Two league games without a win, a brutal Champions League exit to Bayern Munich, and Barcelona disappearing over the horizon. The margin for error has vanished.
Mbappe breaks his silence, Militao breaks down
Alaves arrived fighting for their lives and played like it. They pressed high, ran hard, and nearly stunned the Bernabeu early. Angel Perez burst clear, one-on-one with Andriy Lunin, and then froze. Instead of finishing, he squared the ball and the chance died. Toni Martinez then forced Lunin into action, finding space and driving at goal.
Madrid looked rattled. Then Mbappe did what Mbappe does.
On the half hour, the France captain collected the ball just outside the box, shifted, and hit it. The shot clipped a defender, wrong-footed Antonio Sivera, and slid in. His 24th league goal of the season, his first since early February, and a reminder that even in a difficult spell he remains Madrid’s sharpest weapon.
He went hunting for a second. Sivera beat away another Mbappe effort, and the Bernabeu finally had some noise that sounded like belief rather than frustration.
But the first half brought a darker twist. Eder Militao, still rebuilding his rhythm after long-term injury, rose and glanced a header onto the crossbar. The ball shook the frame. Militao didn’t shake it off. He hurt himself in the process and had to come off before the break, another worrying note for a defence that has already been stretched this season.
Alaves refused to fold. Martinez almost punished Madrid before half-time, stabbing a cross against the post and then seeing his follow-up clawed out by Lunin. The warning was clear: this was no procession.
Vinicius strikes, Alaves bite back
After the restart, Madrid needed a second goal. Anxiety hung over every misplaced pass. Alaves smelled it.
Then Vinicius cut through the noise.
From around 25 yards, he stepped onto the ball and hammered it. Clean. Violent. Unsaveable. Sivera flew, but he was never getting there. The strike gave Madrid breathing space, and for a while the Bernabeu exhaled.
Brahim Diaz nearly killed the game off completely, his effort beating the goalkeeper only for a desperate headed clearance on the line to deny him. Madrid pushed, but never fully convinced. The sense that one mistake could drag them back into a contest they thought they’d controlled never really left.
Alaves kept coming. Victor Parada’s diving header smacked the upright, another reminder of how thin Madrid’s margin was. The visitors didn’t look like a side hovering near the relegation zone; they looked like a team that believed they could steal something in one of football’s most intimidating arenas.
They almost did.
Deep into stoppage time, Martinez finally got his goal, flicking the ball cleverly into the net for a late consolation. Too late to change the result, but not too late to sour the mood. When the final whistle went, the response was telling: loud jeers rolled around the Bernabeu. Madrid had won, but the crowd demanded more than survival mode.
Arbeloa under fire, season on the line
Alvaro Arbeloa knows exactly where he stands. His team sits six points behind Barcelona, who still have a game in hand at home to Celta Vigo. The Champions League dream is gone after that 6-4 aggregate defeat to Bayern, a tie in which Mbappe scored in both legs but could not drag Madrid through.
Now the club stares at the prospect of a second straight season without a major trophy. At Real Madrid, that is not a blip. It’s a crisis.
“We have six matches coming up, the next one in three days. The aim is to win those matches – that's the goal we've set ourselves as a team,” Arbeloa said, brushing aside questions about his own future. “I don't care much about what's at stake for me personally. What matters to me is what's at stake for Real Madrid.”
The message is clear: win out, or brace for impact.
Elsewhere in La Liga, Real Betis staged their own late show, coming from behind to beat Girona 3-2, with Rodrigo Riquelme striking the decisive goal 10 minutes from time. At San Mames, Gorka Guruzeta’s first-half finish earned Athletic Bilbao a 1-0 win over Osasuna, while Mallorca and Valencia shared a 1-1 draw.
Madrid, though, remain the story. Mbappe is scoring again. Vinicius is still capable of thunderbolts. But with Militao limping off, the Bernabeu booing, and Barcelona in control, the question hangs over this team with increasing weight: is this late push a revival, or just resistance before the reset?
