LaLiga: Real Madrid Need Late Winner to Beat Elche as Valencia and Rayo Vallecano Triumph

Real Madrid needed a stoppage-time goal to beat Elche 3-2, Valencia snuck past Alavés 1-0 thanks to a second-half strike, and Rayo Vallecano held off a second-half Espanyol comeback to win 2-1. All three results came in LaLiga matchday 6, and all three were closer than the final whistle made them feel.

Real Madrid 3-2 Elche: Espí's Late Strike Seals It

Real Madrid left Estadio Martínez Valero with all three points, but not before Elche gave them a scare. An own goal from Matías Dituro put Madrid ahead in the 25th minute, and Kylian Mbappé doubled the lead eight minutes later with a clean right-footed finish.

Elche didn't fold. Substitutes Lucas Cepeda and Thomas Lemar came on just after the hour mark and changed the shape of the game almost right away. Abiel Osorio headed in Cepeda's cross in the 71st minute, and 12 minutes later Fernando Niño finished off a pass from fellow substitute Josan to make it 2-2.

It looked like Elche might snatch a point, but Madrid had the last word. In the first minute of stoppage time, Mbappé slipped a pass through for substitute Carlos Espí, who finished from close range to win it.

The stats tell an odd story here. Elche actually had more of the ball (56% possession) and completed more passes, but Madrid were far more dangerous going forward, firing off 20 shots to Elche's 11 and racking up an expected-goals tally of 3.56 against Elche's 0.85. Madrid also created five clear-cut chances and somehow missed three of them, so on another night this could have been a much bigger scoreline.

Mbappé was named man of the match with a rating of 8.6, and fans picked him too, giving him well over 2,600 of the nearly 8,500 votes cast. Besides his goal and assist, he put up four shots, three key passes, and covered close to 100 meters of ball-carrying distance in the game.

Valencia 1-0 Alavés: One Chance Is All They Needed

Valencia came away from Estadio de Mendizorroza with a narrow win, and it came down to a single moment of quality rather than a dominant performance.

The first half was goalless and tight, with Alavés actually the better side in terms of chances created. But the game turned in the 78th minute. Filip Ugrinić and Pablo Maffeo helped push the ball forward, Arnaut Danjuma linked play, and Javi Guerra found Luis Rioja in the left channel. Rioja, on for just 15 minutes at that point, beat goalkeeper Antonio Sivera low into the far corner. He was subbed off a few minutes later as a precaution after picking up a knock, but the goal stood up.

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Alavés actually outshot Valencia 15 to 10 and led on expected goals too, but couldn't turn either of their two big chances into a goal. Valencia's goalkeeper, Stole Dimitrievski, made three saves and helped shut the door when Alavés pushed hardest.

Rioja earned man of the match honors with a 7.6 rating after his one shot of the game went in, and the fan vote agreed, giving him nearly 700 of the roughly 1,200 votes cast. In under 20 minutes on the pitch he completed 5 of 7 passes and still found time to make a couple of defensive contributions too.

Rayo Vallecano 2-1 Espanyol: Fast Start Holds Up

Rayo Vallecano jumped ahead early at Estadio Municipal de Butarque and never gave it back, even though Espanyol made things uncomfortable in the second half.

Captain Álvaro García got things going in just the third minute with a left-footed finish, and Rayo doubled their lead in the 26th minute when Adrià Pedrosa converted after García set him up. By halftime, Rayo had 67% of the possession and looked fully in control.

Espanyol came out with more urgency after the break. Roberto Fernández pulled one back in the 54th minute off a pass from Javier Hernández, and from there Espanyol dominated the ball, taking 14 shots in the second half alone. Things got worse for the visitors late on when Omar El Hilali was sent off for a handball in stoppage time, and by then the comeback had already run out of steam.

The numbers were closer than the scoreline suggests. Espanyol actually out-shot Rayo overall, 19 to 16, but goalkeeping made the difference. Rayo's Emil Audero made three saves for a strong goals-prevented figure, while Espanyol's keeper had none and a much worse number in that category.

García picked up the man of the match award with an 8.1 rating, backed by the fans too, who gave him 545 of 911 votes. On top of his goal and assist, he added an interception, five recoveries, and a tackle won in his 84 minutes on the pitch.