Deportivo Alaves 0-1 Real Madrid – Lucas Vazquez strikes in stoppage time as 10-man Los Blancos go top of La Liga table

Real Madrid will finish 2023 top of La Liga thanks to a stoppage-time header from Lucas Vazquez which earned them a 1-0 win at Deportivo Alaves despite being down to 10 men.

Diminutive right-back Vazquez was left unmarked at a 92nd-minute corner and headed in to score the only goal of a cagey game.

Nacho’s red card – thoroughly deserved after he raked his studs down the Achilles of Samu Omorodion, but only brandished after a VAR review – had come seven minutes after the interval and left Madrid in a precarious position.

They responded well and Alaves did not test the visitors’ makeshift defence, featuring Aurelien Tchouameni at centre-back. It was not hard to see why Alaves have now failed to score in four consecutive league matches.

Victory means Madrid have 45 points, level with Girona but ahead on both goal difference and the head-to-head record, so they lead La Liga at the winter break.

Alaves stay 15th and have 16 points, meaning they are three clear of the relegation zone.

This result stretched Real Madrid’s unbeaten run to 17 games in all competitions, but more importantly moved them top of La Liga. They have to be overwhelming favourites to win the title now, despite how impressive Girona have been through 17 games.

It is a calendar year in which Madrid won the Club World Cup, the Copa del Rey and signed a player who looks capable of being their leading man for the next decade in Jude Bellingham. But you can be sure they feel better about 2023 for finishing it top of La Liga. How they got there was classic Madrid too. Snatching victory at the death when the odds appeared stacked against Carlo Ancelotti’s team.

The player on loan at Alaves from Real Madrid showed the parent club what he is capable of up close and personal, with an assured display at the heart of defence. But for some inexplicable marking at a late corner, where no Alaves player took charge, he would have had a clean sheet to show for it.

Given Nacho will now be banned – adding to a list of defensive absentees which includes the long-term injured Eder Militao and David Alaba – Madrid may seek to have Marin recalled from his loan next month.

Alaves: Sivera 6, Gorosabel 6, Abqar 7, Maris 7, Duarte 5, Guevara 6, Blanco 5, Gruidi 5, Rioja 5, Rebbach 5, Omorodion 5. Subs: Hagi 5, Lopez 5, Sola 5, Tenaglia 5, Garcia 5.

Real Madrid: Kepa 6, Vasquez 7, Nacho 4, Rudiger 7, Garcia 6, Kroos 6, Modric 5, Valverde 6, Diaz 6, Bellingham 5, Rodrygo 5. Subs: Tchouameni 6, Joselu 5 Ceballos n/a.

CHANCE! 2′ – Madrid make inroads on the right, with slick passing creating a two-on-one break. Diaz commits the last man, then slips in Valverde out wide and he shoots first time, but straight at the goalkeeper.

RED CARD! 52′ – Nacho comes through the back of Omorodion, raking his studs down the Alaves man’s Achilles. A yellow card is brandished initially, but after a VAR review it is quite rightly upgraded to a red.

CLOSE! 75′ – Kroos plays a brilliant pass into space, Rodrygo cuts in from the right, finds the room needed to shoot and hits it just wide of the top corner.

GOAL! ALAVES 0-1 REAL MADRID (VAZQUEZ) 90+2′ – Real Madrid have won it! Kroos’ corner is met by Vazquez – unmarked seven yards out – and he heads into the ground, then into the roof of the net.