Madrid beat Valencia but Benzema off injured

Real Madrid reduced Barcelona’s La Liga lead to five points with a 2-0 win over Valencia on Thursday, thanks to spectacular goals from Marco Asensio and Vinicius Junior.

The duo struck in a three-minute second half salvo which stunned the visitors at the Santiago Bernabeu, and Valencia were later reduced to 10 men when Gabriel Paulista took a wild hack at Vinicius.

Madrid dominated throughout but an otherwise good night was tainted when captain Karim Benzema went off injured in the second half with an apparent thigh problem, and Eder Militao was also replaced for a similar reason.

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti confirmed Benzema’s injury was “very light” but that Militao would miss Sunday’s trip to face Real Mallorca.

The game will likely be remembered for Gabriel’s red card tackle on Vinicius, who netted his 50th goal for Madrid on his 200th appearance at 22 years old.

“We have to protect Vinicius a bit, he’s a very expressive kid, he dribbles a lot and defences don’t like that,” Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois told DAZN. We need that Vini. In a lot of games he’s been kicked a lot. I am happy that the referee had the bravery to send off Paulista. Not just because it’s Vini -- if we did that then we would have to be sent off too.”

Valencia’s interim coach Voro, taking over for the eighth time on a temporary basis after Gennaro Gattuso departed by mutual consent on Monday, had a tough night visiting the reigning champions.

Los Che sit 14th, just one point clear of the relegation zone, and will now be without experienced defender Gabriel.

“We had a good first half, that was our plan, leaving them little space, but in the second it was harder for us,” Valencia’s Hugo Guillamon told DAZN.