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French superstar Kylian Mbappe scores on his return from injury to help Real Madrid to a crucial 2-1 win at Alaves.<\/em><\/p>\n Kylian Mbappe\u2019s and Rodrygo Goes\u2019s goals earned Real Madrid a tense 2-1 win at Alaves in La Liga to potentially keep coach Xabi Alonso in his job.<\/p>\n Madrid, second, reeled league leaders Barcelona\u2019s advantage back to four points and recorded only their third victory in the last nine games across all competitions.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/p>\n After a home defeat by Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday, Spanish media reported that anything but a victory would cost Alonso his position.<\/p>\n Following Mbappe\u2019s superb opener on Sunday, Carlos Vicente pulled Alaves level in the second half, but Rodrygo secured the visitors a much-needed victory at Mendizorrotza Stadium.<\/p>\n Alonso was able to bring his key player, Mbappe, back into the side after he could only watch the defeat by City from the bench due to knee discomfort.<\/p>\n The coach also handed a debut to Victor Valdepenas at left-back, with both Alvaro Carreras and Fran Garcia suspended, and Ferland Mendy being one of several players out injured.<\/p>\n Mbappe appeared to be feeling his knee and hobbling in the first few minutes, but despite that, he was the game\u2019s most influential player.<\/p>\n The forward had a shot deflected wide and then fired narrowly over as Alaves sat deep and tried to keep the 15-time European champions at bay.<\/p>\n By the time Mbappe opened the scoring in the 25th minute, his discomfort seemed to have cleared up.<\/p>\n Released by Jude Bellingham, Mbappe drove towards goal at full tilt and whipped a shot into the top right corner for his 17th league goal of the campaign.<\/p>\n England international Bellingham then blasted home from close range, but his strike was ruled out for a handball, as the ball had struck his arm.<\/p>\n Needing to fight back, Alaves moved onto the front foot and took control of the game before the break, almost pulling level.<\/p>\n Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois made a fine save with his head, even if he knew little about it, to deny Pablo Ibanez from close range.<\/p>\n Los Blancos were dangerous again soon after the interval, with Alaves goalkeeper Antonio Sivera saving well from Mbappe and then Vinicius Junior.<\/p>\n They came to rue those misses when Vicente pulled Alaves level after 68 minutes.<\/p>\n The forward got in behind Antonio Rudiger, controlled former Madrid midfielder Antonio Blanco\u2019s chipped pass, and whipped a shot past Courtois.<\/p>\n Eduardo Coudet\u2019s side almost took the lead when Vicente\u2019s low cross from the right was nudged wide by Toni Martinez, who was shifted off-balance as he shot by Raul Asencio\u2019s pressure.<\/p>\n Instead, Madrid pulled back in front, with Vinicius breaking in down the left and crossing for Rodrygo to finish from 6 yards out.<\/p>\n It was the Brazilian\u2019s second goal in two games after going the previous 32 matches without finding the net, and Alonso celebrated vehemently, knowing his future could depend on it.<\/p>\n Vinicius had appeals for a penalty turned down, and Bellingham came close in stoppage time as Madrid tried in vain to put the game to bed and ease their nerves.<\/p>\n Third-place Villarreal\u2019s visit to face Levante was postponed due to a weather warning in the Valencia region. Real Oviedo, 19th, sacked coach Luis Carrion after a 4-0 hammering at Sevilla.<\/p>\n On Saturday, champions Barcelona beat Osasuna 2-0 to win a seventh straight La Liga game and ensure they will lead the table into 2026, regardless of what happens in the final round of fixtures before the winter break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" French superstar Kylian Mbappe scores on his return from injury to help Real Madrid to a crucial 2-1 win at Alaves. Kylian Mbappe\u2019s and Rodrygo Goes\u2019s goals earned Real Madrid a tense 2-1 win at Alaves in La Liga to potentially keep coach Xabi Alonso in his job. Madrid, second, reeled league leaders Barcelona\u2019s advantage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[20649,3293,3223,3799,1413,1408,577,150,4785,455,951],"class_list":{"0":"post-37450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-alaves","9":"tag-alonso","10":"tag-coach","11":"tag-ease","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-madrid","14":"tag-mbappe","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-pressure","17":"tag-real","18":"tag-returns"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n