Valverde, Güler and Mbappé Fire Real Madrid to 3-0 Win at Valencia as Winning Run Reaches Eight

Federico Valverde stood over the loose ball for half a second, and that was all the invitation he needed. Twenty-eight minutes into a tense evening at Mestalla, Kylian Mbappé's free kick had crashed into the Valencia wall and spun back out towards the edge of the area. Valverde met it first time, a half-volley that flew low and hard into the corner, and just like that the whole shape of the night changed. Valencia had held their shape and their nerve until then. One swing of the captain's right boot undid both. It was the kind of goal that has become Valverde's signature this season, struck from distance with no backlift and no mercy, and it settled a Real Madrid side that had started the night knowing a win would take them level with Barcelona at the top of La Liga. Eight minutes later the game was effectively over. Jude Bellingham drove down the left and delivered a cross that looped up off a defender, and Arda Güler was waiting unmarked to volley home the second. The Turkish youngster had already been the brightest player on the pitch; now he had the goal to show for it, and the Mestalla fell quiet. Valencia's frustration boiled over before the break. Pablo Maffeo, booked during a fractious first half, used his half-time interview to vent at the officials over the foul awarded against his side in the build-up to Valverde's opener. It was the complaint of a team that knew the game was slipping away from them, and the second half did nothing to change that feeling. Madrid kept the ball, kept their shape, and kept coming. Güler and Mbappé both passed up chances to stretch the lead further before the Frenchman finally got the goal his performance deserved. It came in the 75th minute and it was worth waiting for. Güler slipped a perfectly weighted pass through, Mbappé collected it inside the area, rounded goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski and rolled the ball into an empty net. It was his 13th league goal of the season, pulling him to within two of Raphinha at the top of the scoring charts, and it was greeted with jeers from the home crowd that had been on his back all night. Four minutes later things got worse for Valencia when captain José Gayà was sent off for a challenge on Mbappé, reducing the hosts to ten men for the closing stages. The numbers told the story of Madrid's control. Valencia managed an expected goals figure of just 0.24 against Madrid's 2.26, and Thibaut Courtois was rarely troubled on a night when the visitors did not even need to be at their best. The victory made it eight wins in a row in all competitions for Madrid heading into the November international break, and it moved them temporarily level on points with Barcelona. For Valencia, a side already struggling near the wrong end of the table, it was another sobering reminder of the distance between the two clubs. There was a moving human dimension to the evening too. The match was played in memory of Jesús de Miguel, the former Tenerife player who died tragically earlier in the week during a Segunda División match. Both teams honoured him before kick-off, and the Mestalla crowd paid its own tribute in the ninth minute, in memory of his shirt number. On a night when the football eventually became one-sided, that shared moment of respect was the part that lingered longest.