After a difficult 5-2 loss against Barcelona over the weekend, Real Madrid returned home to face Celta Vigo on Thursday, Jan. 16, for round 16 of Copa del Rey.
Before the game began, Real Madrid players Eduardo Camavinga, Lucas Vazquez, and Aurelien Tchouameni earned a heaping amount of criticism from media personnel and fans due to their performance over the previous weekend against Barcelona.
Alejandro Moreno, a sports pundit from ESPN, stated that neither Tchouameni nor Vazquez could play center back or right back, leading fans to agree with Moreno on social media.
Thursday morning, before kickoff, FotMob and multiple other soccer apps released the formation for the game, which Madrid came out with 4-3-3.
This formation has four defenders: Vasquez (Right Back), Raul Asencio (Right Center back), Antonio Rüdiger (Left Center Back), Fran Garcia (Left Back); three midfielders: Luka Modric (Center Midfield), Tcouameni (Center Midfield), Daniel Ceballos (Center Midfield); three forwards: Brahim Diaz (Right wing), Kylian Mbappe (Striker), Vinicius Junior (Left Wing); and a goalkeeper, Andriy Lunin, to complete the formation.
There was not a climactic moment until minute 37 of the first half, when Ceballos sent Mbappe a long, which he took to his advantage, and scored the first goal of the game.
The second half started with an impressive goal from Vinicius Junior, assisted by Diaz at the 48-minute mark; Celta Vigo had every chance to score a goal and had the whole Madrid team playing defense in their own half.
Fifteen minutes before the final whistle, Real Madrid had a Virtual Assistance Referee, over the possibility of Mbappe being outside of play, Referee Jose Luis Munuera Montero went to check, and he confirmed that Mbappe was outside, and the goal was disallowed.
Real Madrid was falling behind when poor communication from the players ended with two goals scored by Celta Vigo’s Jonathan Bamba and Marcos Alonso.
During this complicated moment, Asencio caused a penalty where he ended up doing a slide tackle inside his penalty box. This resulted in Garcia being subbed out for Jude Bellingham at the 90-minute mark, providing attacking options and the possibility of a penalty shootout.
Finally, towards the end of the match, they were given extra time. Despite the visible exhaustion from both teams, Real Madrid took advantage of this moment and scored three back-to-back goals from both Endrick and Valverde resulting in a 5-2 victory after extra time.