Vinicius Junior’s first-half strike and a late Karim Benzema effort gave Real Madrid a third straight win in LaLiga as Los Blancos beat Levante 2-0 on Sunday.
The Brazilian forward had hit Madrid’s only goal in the 1-0 win at home to Real Valladolid on Wednesday night after coming off the bench in that match and was restored to the starting XI here along with Marco Asensio.
And he was on target again, curling a shot past Aitor Fernandez from the back of the area on the left after a corner had been only partially cleared by the Levante defence after 16 minutes.
Madrid were on top for most of the first half and should have gone further clear after the break, when Vinicius Jr missed two wonderful chances and Benzema curled an effort against the post.
Zinedine Zidane’s side were also somewhat unfortunate to see a Sergio Ramos header from a free-kick ruled out by VAR for offside, although there may have been a foul by the Real skipper.
Levante made a double change and improved straight away, setting up a number of chances, and Madrid had goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois to thank once again for a number of fine saves.
The Belgian parried a fierce effort from Enis Bardhi, got down well to smother an effort from Carlos Clerc and stuck out a boot to keep out a long-range effort which had deflected off Casemiro and was heading in.
The home side, playing at Villarreal’s Estadio de la Ceramica as renovations continue at their Ciutat de Valencia stadium, committed men as they sought a leveller in added time and paid the price as Benzema made it 2-0 right at the death.
Levante gave the ball away in Madrid’s half, Rodrygo reacted to set Benzema away and the French forward kept his cool to beat the last defender and blast a shot past Aitor to seal the win, which sends Los Blancos provisionally top of LaLiga after three victories and a draw in their four fixtures so far.
