A poor touch from Ledesma well outside his box gives Real a chance to finish the game off, but the Cadiz defenders spare their goalkeeper's blushes by getting back, and Valverde blasts it over the bar!
90' +2
Bongonda bursts forward before teeing up Ocampo to his right, but the substitute's cross is headed away by Militao!
90'
We'll play four minutes of added time at the Bernabeu, and can Cadiz use them to find an unlikely equaliser?
88'
Nacho enters the game and replaces Lucas Vázquez.
Vazquez has been impressive up and down the right flank for the hosts, and he's replaced by Nacho for the final few minutes.
86'
A long cross-field pass from deep finds Espino running in behind the defence, but Militao gets across the Cadiz left-back to re-take possession for Real, winning a free-kick in the process.
85'
E. Camavinga enters the game and replaces L. Modrić.
Madrid captain Modric is next off for the hosts, and Eduardo Camavinga replaces him in midfield.
82'
Dani Ceballos enters the game and replaces Rodrygo.
Los Blancos wait until the 82nd minute to make their first change, as Rodrygo comes off for Dani Ceballos.
81'
Lucas Pérez has scored a goal for Cadiz!
GOOOOAAAAL!!! Cadiz are back in it!!! Bongonda shoots from a tight angle in the box, but Courtois spills it! Negredo's rebound is stopped by the Belgian, before Perez arrives late to slot the ball into the empty net!!! 2-1 with less than 10 minutes left, and things suddenly get very interesting at the Bernabeu!
78'
Álvaro Negredo enters the game and replaces Rubén Sobrino.
Sobrino is next off for Cadiz, and on comes veteran striker Alvaro Negredo, who spent several years of his early career at the Bernabeu.
75'
Ocampo cuts inside and shoots from the edge of the box, but a controlled interception from Militao cuts the effort out before it can reach Courtois.
Minute
Description
73'
José Mari enters the game and replaces Juan Cala.
Juan Cala is also withdrawn, and is replace at the back by Jose Mari.
72'
Lucas Pérez enters the game and replaces A. Lozano.
Cadiz make further changes following that goal, and Lozano is replayed by Lucas Perez up front.
70'
T. Kroos has scored a goal for Real Madrid!
GOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLL!!!!! WHAT A FANTASTIC HIT!!! The corner is half-cleared by Cadiz and Kroos plays it left to Vinicius. His cross deflects up to Kroos, who arrives onto the ball and smashes a precision volley through the crowd and straight into the bottom corner!! That goal had power, pace, precision and everything in between, and it puts Real Madrid 2-0 up!!
Los Blancos queue up on the edge of the box and it comes to Vazquez on the right. He floats the ball into the centre, but a good defensive header from Fali results in another corner for the hosts.
68'
Modric picks up the ball on the edge of the box, and feigns shooting on his right before pulling the trigger with his left, and a deflection sees the ball roll behind for another Madrid corner!
66'
Rodrygo takes on Carcelen and turns the Cadiz defender inside out, but his final ball is cut out by the right-back and he concedes the corner!
63'
Vazquez's cut-back flicks up to Rodrygo, who smashes a shot from the right-side of the box that skews well wide of the target!
61'
Vazquez takes on Espino and drills a low ball towards the front post, but it's claimed by Ledesma who holds the ball from the right-back's effort.
60'
He may have conceded a free-kick for offside there, but Vinicius himself has won five fouls in this game, more than any other player on either team. The majority of those came via rash, pointless challenges from Alejo!
58'
Vinicius and Rodrygo link up on the left side of the box, with a clever back-heel from the latter, but Vinicius is caught offside and the chance comes to nothing!
56'
T. Bongonda enters the game and replaces Iván Alejo.
B. Ocampo enters the game and replaces Rubén Alcaraz.
Alcaraz is also withdrawn for Cadiz, and Brian Ocampo replaces him in midfield.
That booking signals the end of Alejo's match, as he's replaced by Theo Bongonda.
55'
Iván Alejo gets yellow.
Alejo leaves a late forearm on Vinicius, again, but this time the referee finally shows him a yellow card!
52'
Alejo's in the thick of a controversy once again, almost throwing Mendy into the stands as the left-back shepherds the ball out for a goal kick. The linesman intervenes, but once again the perpetrator Alejo avoids a booking!
48'
Valverde finds Vazquez in space on the right, who drifts into the box. He looks to find the corner with the outside of his boot, but can only skew the ball wide of the far post!
46'
The Madridstas resume play at the Bernabeu, and we're off and running in the second half!
45' +2
HALF-TIME: REAL MADRID 1-0 CADIZ.
45' +1
We're into the first of two added minutes to close out this half at the Bernabeu.
45'
Vinicius is on the deck once again, having been clipped late by Lozano on halfway. Another foul against the Brazilian does not result in a booking, despite Vinicius having one himself for dissent!
44'
Rubén Sobrino gets yellow.
Militao looks to escape the attention of Espino and Sobrino, but is caught by the latter on the near touchline and wins a free-kick, for which Sobrino is shown a yellow card.
40'
Éder Militão has scored a goal for Real Madrid! Assist by T. Kroos.
GOOOOAAAALLL!!! Real Madrid strike first blood! Kroos' initial corner is punched away by Ledesma, but straight to Modric, who finds Kroos again. His first-time ball into the box is met by an unmarked Militao, who drifts beyond the offside trap to head the ball into the back of the net! 1-0 to Real, and that will calm some nerves around the Bernabeu.
Kroos' first delivery was too close to Ledesma, but he immediately redeemed himself, putting the ball right on the edge of Militao with hardly a yellow shirt in sight.
39'
Carcelen's low cross is aimed towards Lozano, but a deflection on the way through allows Alaba to clear before the Cadiz striker can get there.
37'
D. Alaba gets yellow.
Lozano looks to skip past the challenge of Alaba but is unable to, winning a free-kick in the process. Alaba is booked for the late challenge, and that means both Real Madrid centre-backs have now received cautions.
35'
Rodrygo goes down in the box under pressure from Cala, but it's nowhere near enough pressure to be penalty-worthy and the referee calls play-on.
34'
After Vinicius wins another free-kick, it's played across the field to Vazquez. He controls the ball brilliantly with his chest, but his cut-back finds no one but Cala, who hooks it away!
30'
Vazquez finds Rodrygo running at pace into the box, and the Brazilian drills an off-balance effort straight into the gloves of Ledesma!
28'
Vinícius Júnior gets yellow.
Fali gets yellow.
Following that passage of play, Vinicius isn't happy at all with Fali or the referee, and is shown a booking for dissent by the referee.
Fali is also booked, and hopefully that pair of yellow cards can calm some tensions at the Bernabeu.
27'
Alejo commits another foul on Vinicius but doesn't see a card, and the Madrid free-kick is easily headed away by Fali!
25'
Madrid recycle the ball quickly and Kroos tees up Tchouameni, whose strike from the edge of the box flies over the crossbar!
23'
Real break down the right through Valverde and Vazquez, and after the former looks for his right-back with a back-heel, it deflects behind off Sobrino for a Madrid corner.
21'
Vazquez cuts inside to link up with Modric on the edge of the box, and he in turn looks for Valverde, but the Uruguayan's run in behind is thwarted by Espino, who intercepts the pass.
19'
Éder Militão gets yellow.
Lozano looks to spark a Cadiz break as he turns Militao, but is dragged back by the Real defender, who is booked by the referee.
18'
Valverde's cross to the edge of the box is latched onto by Kroos, but the German mis-hits the volley and is skews well wide of goal!
17'
One-touch play from Modric and Tchouameni almost gives Rodrygo a throughball to run onto in the box, but the forward can't quite get to the ball before Ledesma smothers it.
8'
Another mistimed challenge from Alejo sees him catch Kroos late, and having been nowhere near the ball again, the Cadiz winger is walking a tightrope towards a yellow card.
5'
Rodrygo dribbles his way into the box and pulls the trigger from 16 yards, but the ball takes a nick off Fali and rolls into the gloves of Ledesma!
2'
Alejo flies into Vinicius on the far touchline, smashing the Brazil winger over the sideline!
Tchouameni has the ball in space and tries a pop shot from 30 yards, but nearly sends the ball out of the stadium with a woefully wayward effort!
1'
The visitors kick off, and we are underway in the Spanish capital!
Hello, and welcome to live coverage of this fixture in Serie A, as Real Madrid take on Cadiz at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.
After dropping just two points from 33 available in their first 11 games of the season, Madrid have hit a poor patch of form lately, winning neither of their last two games and suffering their first defeat of the season to Rayo Vallecano last time out. They’re now five points behind Barcelona, and need to use this game in hand to keep pace with the Blaugrana.
Cadiz are also second, albeit second-bottom of the table, having won just twice so far this season. It’s ridiculously tight at the bottom though, with just three points separating seven of the bottom eight positions. Cadiz, who beat Real’s city rivals Atletico two games ago, are on a two-game unbeaten run, and could climb to 16th with a win in Madrid.
CADIZ SUBS: David Gil, Jose Mari, Theo Bongonda, Tomas Alarcon, Brian Ocampo, Lucas Perez, Awer Mabil, Alvaro Negredo, Alvaro Gimenez, Santiago Arzamendia, Antonio Blanco, Lautaro Spatz.
CADIZ (4-4-2): Jeremias Ledesma; Iza Carcelen, Fali, Juan Cala, Alfonso Espino; Ivan Alejo, Ruben Alcaraz, Fede San Emeterio, Ruben Sobrino; Alex Fernandez, Anthony Lozano.
REAL MADRID SUBS: Andriy Lunin, Luis Lopez, Dani Carvajal, Jesus Vallejo, Nacho, Eden Hazard, Marco Asensio, Eduardo Camavinga, Alvaro Odriozola, Dani Ceballos, Mariano Diaz.
REAL MADRID (4-3-3): Thibaut Courtois; Lucas Vazquez, Eder Militao, David Alaba, Ferland Mendy; Luka Modric, Aurelien Tchouameni, Toni Kroos; Federico Valverde, Rodrygo, Vinicius Junior.
The teams head out of the tunnel at the Bernabeu, and walk onto this grand old pitch ahead of kick-off!
The teams return for the second half, and can Real Madrid build on Militao's goal to see out a comfortable injury here?
That's all from us, we hope you enjoyed the game. Until next time, goodbye!
Three crucial points ensures Real Madrid close their five-point gap at La Liga's summit, and now trail Barcelona by just two. With plenty of the season left to go, and the Clasico rivals already nine points clear of the chasing pack, La Liga is in for one hell of a title race when play resumes after the World Cup. Cadiz remain 19th after their loss at the Bernabeu, but their fightback following Perez's late finish showed their resolve, and they certainly won't go down without a fight for the rest of the season.
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