Karim Benzema scored a late winner as Real Madrid staged an impressive comeback to beat Sevilla 3-2 and move 15 points clear at the top of LaLiga.
Real Madrid will be confirmed as Spanish champions sooner rather than later and no one can deny them the crown. No team in Spain has the same capacity for comeback. No side never knows when it’s beaten in quite the same way.
They were 2-0 down at half time against Sevilla and looked groggy after another testing week in the Champions League but they turned things around with three second half goals and are now 15 points clear, albeit having played two games more than Barcelona, and with only six games left.
The winning goal came two minutes into injury time and from who else but Karim Benzema. He started the move playing in Vinicius who flicked it out to substitute Rodrygo Goes. He accelerated past Ludwig Augustinsson and pulled it back to Benzema.
The Frenchman, now with 25 league goals, his best tally ever, always seems to have more time in the six-yard box than everyone else and he cooly buried it past Bono to win the game for his team.
Both teams will have complaints about key refereeing decisions. Eduardo Camavinga might have been sent off in the first half. And Vinicius looked to have a perfectly good goal ruled out in the second. But the result was fair and so will be Madrid title when they finally claim it.
Sevilla had enjoyed a far better first half than Madrid who were missing left back Ferland Mendy and holding midfielder Casemiro through injury and suspension.
They had right-footed Dani Carvajal at left back and Toni Kroos in holding midfield until Camavinga swapped with him after 25 minutes.
Carlo Ancelotti's side were slower to everything and it couldn’t be blamed on a Champions League hangover because the player struggling most was Eder Militao who didn’t play against Chelsea.
And on 75 minutes the comeback looked complete when Modric flicked on Lucas Vazquez’ cross and Vinicius controlled the ball with his chest and fired it past Bono. The goal was ruled out for hand ball. Vinicius protested that the ball had hit his chest and Cuadra Fernandez went across to the pitchside monitor. It looked chest on the replays but the referee stood by his first call.
Madrid would not be denied though. Carvajal crossed from the right and Nacho, who had come on for Lucas, finished through a crowd of players in the six-yard box past Bono to level.
Most teams would now have eased up having secured an away point against the odds. Not Madrid. They kept ploughing forward and their talisman got the winner in the 93rd minute.
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