{"id":1271889,"date":"2022-12-31T02:02:32","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T02:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/12\/31\/benzema-double-against-valladolid-sends-real-madrid-to-top\/"},"modified":"2022-12-31T02:02:32","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T02:02:32","slug":"benzema-double-against-valladolid-sends-real-madrid-to-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/12\/31\/benzema-double-against-valladolid-sends-real-madrid-to-top\/","title":{"rendered":"Benzema double against Valladolid sends Real Madrid to top"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/3516772-71682608-2560-1440-696x392.jpg\"   alt=\"Karim Benzema celebrates during Valladolid v Real Madrid, La Liga, Estadio Municipal Jose Zorrilla, Valladolid, Spain, December 30, 2022 Image credit: Getty Images\" title=\"Karim Benzema celebrates during Valladolid v Real Madrid, La Liga, Estadio Municipal Jose Zorrilla, Valladolid, Spain, December 30, 2022  Image credit: Getty Images\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Karim Benzema celebrates during Valladolid v Real Madrid, La Liga, Estadio Municipal Jose Zorrilla, Valladolid, Spain, December 30, 2022<\/p>\n<p>Image credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Real Madrid moved top of La Liga with an unconvincing 2-0 win against 10-man Real Valladolid.<\/p>\n<p>Inside the first 15 minutes, Madrid were denied a penalty despite Javi Sanchez\u2019s apparent handball, with Carlo Ancelotti left furious at the decision.<\/p>\n<p>Minutes later Karim Benzema blazed over the bar from point-blank range, then Antonio Rudiger headed wide.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p>Valladolid had been stretched almost to breaking but from midway through the first half they were the dominant side.<\/p>\n<p>Thibaut Courtois denied Alvaro Aguado\u2019s curling effort shortly before the break, while the hosts had a penalty appeal of their own turned down before another Aguado chance.<\/p>\n<p>On the hour mark, Valladolid lost both Roque Mesa and Julian Escudero to injury, while Madrid introduced Lucas Vazquez and Rodrygo.<\/p>\n<p>Another trio of brilliant Courtois saves were required to keep the scores level with 20 minutes to play.<\/p>\n<p>With 10 minutes to play, Rudiger headed onto the arm of Sanchez and this time the VAR intervened to award the champions a late penalty. In the furious aftermath, Sergio Leon was sent off.<\/p>\n<p>Benzema stepped up to convert the spot kick after a long wait.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly afterwards Benzema wrapped up the victory with his second goal, courtesy of a Luka Modric cameo, to give Madrid possession of top spot in La Liga.<\/p>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"SJ6WK55pp7U\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Obuasi Market Fire: Traders call for setting up fire station in the market (30-12-22)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SJ6WK55pp7U?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Karim Benzema celebrates during Valladolid v Real Madrid, La Liga, Estadio Municipal Jose Zorrilla, Valladolid, Spain, December 30, 2022 Image credit: Getty Images Real Madrid moved top of La Liga with an unconvincing 2-0 win against 10-man Real Valladolid. Inside the first 15 minutes, Madrid were denied a penalty despite Javi Sanchez\u2019s apparent handball, with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1271890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[5835,677,554,555,3187,121,23819],"class_list":["post-1271889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-benzema","tag-double","tag-madrid","tag-real","tag-sends","tag-top","tag-valladolid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1271889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1271889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1271889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1271889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}