Arda Guler Nets Long Range Beauty as Real Madrid Rout Elche
Arda Guler found the net from deep in his own territory while Fede Valverde rounded off a superb week with yet another brilliant effort as Real Madrid demolished Elche 4-1 on Saturday in La Liga.
Los Blancos in second place narrowed the lead over Barcelona at the summit of La Liga to just one point ahead of the Catalans facing Sevilla on Sunday.
Uruguayan midfielder Valverde who had notched a stunning hat-trick versus Manchester City in the Champions League during the week curled the ball into the top corner prior to the interval following Antonio Rudigers powerful opener for the home side.
Dean Huijsen nodded in the third for Alvaro Arbeloas team who travel to Man City on Tuesday with sights set on the Champions League quarter finals.
The standout moment of the match came courtesy of Turkish creator Guler towards the end who noticed Elche keeper Matias Dituro out of position and chipped the ball home from close to the halfway line.
"He clipped the bar from that spot in a previous match and today he made it happen what a strike" Madrid attacker Brahim Diaz said to Real Madrid TV.
"Everyone was stunned its worth the entry fee just to witness that goal" Arbeloa added.
Arbeloa managed to give breaks to numerous starters after the interval including Vinicius Junior Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni substituting in plenty of young talents to preserve energy for the Manchester journey.
Madrids manager positioned skipper Dani Carvajal at right back while giving Trent Alexander Arnold a rest and promising midfielder Thiago Pitarch lined up for his fourth straight outing.
Madrid continue to miss several key injured players such as Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo Goes though French forward Kylian Mbappe might be back from a knee issue next week.
Elche sitting 17th suffered their 11th league match in a row without a win and risk dropping into the drop zone by weekends end.
Building Momentum and Finding the Net
Madrid arrived buoyant after beating City and while Elche put up initial fight they were slowly taken apart.
Following Dituros stop on Valverdes free kick Elche failed to deal with the loose ball properly and German defender Rudiger smashed it in during the 39th minute.
Valverde made it two just before half time displaying coolness to create space on the boxes edge and steering the shot into the top corner for his fifth strike across his previous three games.
Madrid controlled proceedings and Arbeloa a past youth coach in the setup introduced various prospects including Daniel Yanez. The 18 year old winger delivered an excellent ball for Huijsen to head home the third.
"Yanez and (Diego) Aguado were among the first lads I trained at ages 13 or 14 and getting them onto the Bernabeu pitch is a personal dream realised" Arbeloa commented.
One of Madrids replacements Manuel Angel unfortunately scored an own goal while attempting to block a pass with five minutes remaining.
Yet Guler re established Madrids lead with finesse from his own area launching a high shot over Dituro who raced back in vain to no avail.