Real Madrid rout Malaga 4-0 at the Bernabeu with a crushing first half

It took Bellingham less than twenty minutes to blow the game open, and from there Malaga could do little but weather the storm. Real Madrid routed the visitors 4-0 at the Bernabeu with a crushing first half: three goals before the break that settled the evening's business long before the final whistle.

The opening exchanges hinted at what was coming: David Larrubia tested Courtois before the crowd had even settled in, and Mbappe answered right away with a shot that drifted wide. But it was in the 18th minute when Real Madrid found the breakthrough: Jude Bellingham connected with an angled effort from the right that crept in at the center of the goal to make it 1-0. The goal eased the pressure on the home side and gave Vinicius and company all the room in the world to keep creating.

Malaga, who had managed a flicker of danger through Rafa Rodriguez clipping the post, fell apart in the space of just eleven minutes. In the 25th came the 2-0, an own goal by Alfonso Herrero after sustained home pressure, and four minutes later, in the 29th, Mbappe made it 3-0 with a low finish from the center of the box after a cross from Trent Alexander-Arnold. With the game practically decided before the half hour mark, the teams went into the break with Real Madrid up 3-0.

A routine second half until the finish

The second half dropped in intensity, as tends to happen when the gap is already this wide. There were chances to add to the tally, Bellingham struck the post in the 54th minute and Mbappe forced a strong diving save with a header in the 58th, while Malaga tried to find a way through Chupe and Haitam Abaida without success. In the 85th minute VAR reviewed a possible penalty for the visitors and waved it off. The final act came in stoppage time: in the 90th minute, substitute Arda Guler finished low with his left foot on a counterattack led by Vinicius Junior to make it a final 4-0.

The numbers confirm the dominance

Real Madrid's superiority was reflected in the match statistics:

It's striking that Malaga fired off fourteen shots, nearly as many as the home side, yet managed just one on target: efficiency made all the difference. In the xG estimated after the fact based on shot location, Real Madrid generated 3.02 against Malaga's 0.72, a gap that captures fairly well just how one-sided the match was.

The result, moreover, lined up almost exactly with what had been projected beforehand: our preview gave an 81% chance of a home win, 13% for a draw and just 6% for a Malaga victory, with expected goals of 2.97 for Real Madrid and 0.77 for Malaga. The final 4-0 scoreline is consistent with those numbers, perhaps even a shade better than expected for the home side.

In the LaLiga standings, the win keeps Real Madrid on top with 9 points from 3 games played, all won. Malaga, meanwhile, remain on just 1 point from their 3 matches, a situation that explains why the outcome was never really in doubt. The points gap between the two sides before this match already stood at 8, and this evening's rout only confirmed the distance between them at this early stage of the season.