Jude Bellingham’s late equaliser saw Real Madrid snatch a point from a dramatic 2-2 draw at Elche to edge clear of rivals Barcelona at the top of LaLiga.
Bellingham poked home in the 87th minute, three minutes after a fine strike from Álvaro Rodríguez against his former club looked like giving Elche their first win in six games.
That was the second time in the game the hosts had led, but Aleix Febas’ strike early in the second half was cancelled out by Dean Huijsen 12 minutes from time.
The first half was an open contest that somehow ended goalless despite a succession of chances for both sides.
Kylian Mbappé should have done better when played in by Raúl Asencio early on but fired wide, and at the other end André Silva missed the target from German Valera’s cross.
Thibaut Courtois then made an excellent save to deny Rafa Mir after Héctor Fort stole the ball from Álvaro Carreras.
Real Madrid’s misses kept piling up as Asencio and Arda Güler failed to find the target, and Elche should have taken advantage in the 27th minute when Andre Silva went one-on-one with Courtois. The Portuguese passed up the shot and tried to find Mir, but that allowed Huijsen to nick the ball away.
At the other end Mbappé went clean through but a poor touch allowed Iñaki Peña to make the save, and the goalkeeper denied the France striker again when Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross found him unmarked.
The goalkeepers were the primary reason it remained 0-0 at the break, and Peña picked up where he left off when he got a strong hand to Rodrygo’s shot moments after the restart.
Instead it was Elche who broke the deadlock in the 53rd minute. Valera’s backheel found Febas and he had the beating of Courtois from close range.
Xabi Alonso made several changes in search of a spark to get Madrid back into it. Vinícius Júnior was among those to come off the bench and the Brazilian was through on goal in the 72nd minute. Opting instead to try to find Mbappé, he saw his cross cleared by Álvaro Núñez.
“We spoke about it, [Vinicius] understands it, he knows the role and the impact he could have, we’ve done it other times, like against Getafe,” Alonso said of not starting his Brazilian star. “We’re not as happy as we could be, but we want to get back to good results and good form.”
But the visitors kept the pressure on and got their reward in the 78th minute when Huijsen pounced on a loose ball after Elche failed to clear a corner.
Elche responded well and had chances for both Mir and Martin Neto to retake the lead before Rodriguez struck with six minutes of normal time remaining.
The former Real Madrid youngster beat Asencio before unleashing a powerful strike from the edge of the box.
That had home fans anticipating a first win over Real Madrid since they returned to LaLiga in 2013.
But there was a twist in the tail as three minutes later Bellingham bundled the ball in after Elche were unable to clear a free kick, with a bloodied Peña unsuccessfully appealing for a foul.
To add to Elche’s frustrations, Víctor Chust was shown a second yellow card in stoppage time after fouling Mbappé.
“It’s football. After a good run, now we’ve had some results that aren’t what we want,” Alonso added. “We aren’t happy, because we always want to win. But now we have a lot of games before the end of the year, and we have to think about the next one, analysing what happened today.
“The team is still competing. The context of each game is different. We can improve, we’re self-critical, but the team spirit is still good. We have to respond to adversity. A result which isn’t favourable leads to criticism and we have to live with that, but we want to improve.”
