By Daily Sports on February 23, 2017

 Leaders Real Madrid suffered just their second La Liga loss of the season in a shock 1-2 loss to Valencia at Mestalla.

Former West Ham striker Simone Zaza opened the scoring for the hosts with a spectacular strike and Fabian Orellana doubled the lead before Cristiano Ronaldo pulled a goal back.

Ronaldo could have snatched a point late on, but failed to hit the target with his looping header.

Zinedine Zidane’s side remain one point clear of Barcelona with a game in hand.

Italian Zaza, 25, failed to score in 11 appearances for the Hammers and broke down in tears at the weekend after his first goal since May.

His fourth minute strike against Real at the Mestalla was brilliant, spinning in the area and shooting into the top corner.

Just five minutes later, Orellana finished off a flowing counter-attack, but just before the break Ronaldo’s towering header – on his 700th club appearance in his career – from Marcelo’s cross gave Los Blancos hope.

Welshman Gareth Bale came off the bench for just his second appearance after a three-month injury layoff for the final half hour and nearly scored, but his point-blank header was blocked by Enzo Perez.

Victory allows struggling Valencia to move up to 13th in the table, with boss Voro their third manager of the season.

Coach of Madrid, Zinedine Zidane said after the match: “We lost the game in the first ten minutes. We moved the ball well, played our game and created chances to score. We made mistakes and they scored twice. We then had 80 minutes to get back into the game, we did that but we were lacking in many areas today. We had the chance to put points on the board and we’ve not managed to do that. They were very much together in their play, tightened up well and got the better of us up top.” (Victor Okoye/NAN)

•Photo shows Valencia striker Simone Zaza.

Source Daily Sports

Posted February 23, 2017

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