Real Madrid vs Villarreal 1-0

Real Madrid beat Villarreal 1-0 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium after Yan Diomande's second-half goal, with VAR confirming the strike before Vinícius was sent off later in the game.

The first half brought no goals. Villarreal's Renato Veiga was booked in the 10th minute and Jude Bellingham went into the book on 19 minutes, before Real Madrid sent on Marc Cucurella for Álvaro Fernández Carreras on 45 minutes. The sides went in level at 0-0.

Real Madrid made another change on 52 minutes, bringing on Vinícius for Trent Alexander-Arnold. Villarreal then made two changes on 56 minutes, with Carlos Romero replacing Juan Foyth and Nathan-Dylan Saliba coming on for Santi Comesaña, before Yan Diomande finished Federico Valverde's pass in the 62nd minute to make it 1-0. VAR confirmed that goal a minute later. Villarreal made two more changes on 67 minutes, sending on Gerard Moreno for Ilias Akhomach Chakkour and Georges Mikautadze for Sergi Cardona Bermúdez, but Real Madrid lost Vinícius in the 72nd minute after his goal was ruled out by VAR and he was shown a red card. Real Madrid then finished with ten men after further changes, while Villarreal could not find an equaliser.

Villarreal had more of the ball, with 54% possession and 475 passes to Real Madrid's 46% and 406, and they also had more shots, 15 to 11. Real Madrid had the better of corners, 9-3, while both sides had 4 shots on target. The hosts also posted 0.99 expected goals to Villarreal's 0.64, and Villarreal made 4 saves to Real Madrid's 3.

Real Madrid were shown 5 yellow cards and a red. Bellingham was booked on 19 minutes, José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix on 68, Ibrahima Konaté on 81, Antonio Rüdiger on 83, Aurelien Tchouameni on 87 and Kylian Mbappé in the 90th minute plus 4, while Vinícius was booked, had a goal disallowed and was sent off on 72 minutes. Villarreal had 2 yellow cards, for Renato Veiga on 10 minutes and Pau Navarro on 84.