Real Madrid rout Valencia 3-0 at Mestalla as Gayà sees red

It took Real Madrid just twenty seven minutes to put this game to bed at Mestalla. Federico Valverde opened the scoring with a low shot from outside the box off a set piece, and eight minutes later Arda Güler made it 0-2 with a right-footed strike into the top corner from the center of the area. In the second half, Kylian Mbappé rounded off the rout with a close-range finish set up by Güler himself, and the final 0-3 came with an extra storyline: Jose Gaya was shown a red card in the 78th minute, leaving Valencia down to ten men.

The visitors' control was total from the opening whistle. Real Madrid moved the ball comfortably, piled up chances and never let it seem like the result could go any other way. Valencia, for its part, barely showed up: a shot from Aaron Mayol in the 18th minute and little else in the first 45 minutes.

How the deadlock broke

The opening goal came from a free kick near the box that Valverde dispatched with a low shot just inside the left post, in the 27th minute. The second wasn't long in coming: in the 35th minute, Güler received the ball in the middle of the area and finished with his right foot into the top corner, after a first half in which Real Madrid had already served notice with shots from Ibrahima Konate, Valverde himself and Aurelien Tchouameni. Valencia went into the break down 0-2 without having created any real danger.

In the second half, Mbappe tried his luck on several occasions (shots saved in the 55th, 56th and 58th minutes) until, in the 74th minute, he capped off a run in behind from Güler with a close-range finish that made it 0-3. Four minutes later, with the game already decided, Gaya was sent off, snuffing out any hope Valencia had of salvaging the scoreline.

The numbers confirm the gap

The stats paint the picture of a one-sided game. Real Madrid had 68.3 percent possession, fired 19 shots to Valencia's 4, and generated, according to our estimate based on the shots taken in the match, 3.32 expected goals to just 0.246 for the home side.

Beforehand, our projection gave Real Madrid a 63 percent chance of winning, with expected goals of 2.1 for the visitors and 0.92 for Valencia, a preview that already pointed to a comfortable result for Mourinho's side. What happened on the field was, if anything, even more emphatic: three goals for the visitors to none for the home team, in line with the projection but with an even wider margin.

What the result means in the standings

Real Madrid came into this match in second place, with 30 points from 12 games played (10 wins, 0 draws, 2 losses), level on points with Barcelona but having played one more match. Valencia, meanwhile, sat in 19th place with just 9 points from 12 games (2 wins, 3 draws, 7 losses) and a goal difference of minus 12. The 21 point gap between the two sides in the table was plain to see in what unfolded at Mestalla.

The win leaves Real Madrid feeling good about what's ahead, while Valencia adds another defeat that further complicates its standing near the bottom of LaLiga. Gaya's sending off, combined with the gulf in quality shown on the field, sums up a night to forget at home.