Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, commonly referred to as Real Madrid or simply Real, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded on 6 March 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally worn a white home kit since inception. Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club in Valencia, in the namesake autonomous community. Founded on 9 September 1909, Levante play in La Liga, holding home games at Ciutat de València Stadium. Real Madrid crushed bottom-side Levante 6-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Thursday night in a match that saw Vinicius Junior net a hat trick and Karim Benzema continue continue his rampant goalscoring form in LaLiga this season.
The result means Levante, who have 29 points from 36 matches, are relegated to Spain’s second division as they cannot mathematically get out of the bottom three.
he league’s top side host the league’s bottom side and while Carlo Ancelotti can afford to rest several key players with the Champions League final coming up, Levante realistically have to win to maintain any chance of staying in the division.
Levante have done well against Los Blancos in recent times. The last five meetings between the two teams have produced two wins each and a draw, with the latest being an enthralling 3-3 tie in August.
Real Madrid vs Levante FULL TIME: 6-0
In this live blog, we’ll bring you all the latest updates from Madrid, from the pre-match build-up to minute-by-minute text commentary once the first whistle is blown.
The kick-off is set for 21:30 CEST in Spain, which is 20:30 BST in the United Kingdom, or 15:30 on the USA’s east coast and 12:30 on the USA’s west coast.
Real Madrid were rampant with goals from Ferland Mendy (13), Karim Benzema (19), Rodrygo (34) and Vinicius (45, 67, 83) in a match where Levante fell apart early on.
Madrid are looking ahead to their Champions League final against Liverpool on May 28, gave an early warning with a shot from the edge of the area by Benzema, which Daniel Cárdenas cleared off the line.
Carlo Ancelotti’s Real, who face Liverpool in the Champions League final in Paris on Saturday, 28 May, clinched their 35th Spanish title at the end of April with four games to spare and ran riot against bottom-of-the-table Levante.
Left-back Mendy scored after only 13 minutes, bursting into the box and shooting past goalkeeper Dani Cardenas before Benzema doubled the lead six minutes later.
Rodrygo and Vinicius made it 4-0 by half time, both scoring after good work from Luka Modric, who became the first Real player since James Rodriguez in 2015 to contribute three assists in a La Liga match.
Real Madrid have to gain confidence and momentum for the Champions League and this is the perfect opportunity for them to do so against what should be a manageable Levante side who are still fighting to avoid relegation with three games to go. The Champions League Final is just two weeks away!
The hosts suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of local rivals Atletico Madrid in their previous outing. Carlo Ancelotti rested the club’s key players in that game, which contributed to their first loss in the league since March
After losing 1-0 to Atletico Madrid over the weekend in a game they did not seem to care much about, Real Madrid used more of their key players against Levante, who would be relegated with a loss.
Los Blancos did not just beat the Frogs. They destroyed them. It was dominance from start to finish, as Real Madrid won 6-0 in a classic Santiago Bernabeu blowout, which would have been by an even bigger scoreline had it not been for the heroics from Levante’s keeper.
Here are the player ratings from the Merengues’ big win, which included a hat-trick of goals from Vinicius Jr. and a hat-trick of assists by the magical Luka Modric.