La Liga: Goals galore as Vinicius Jr brace seals draw for Real Madrid vs Levante

In arguably the most dramatic fixture in La Liga so far this season, Real Madrid came back to salvage a thrilling 3-3 draw against Levante, who went down to 10-men in the dying moments of the game, at the Valencia City Stadium on Sunday.

Los Blancos will have Brazilian starlet Vinicius Jr. to thank for the point as his two goals off the bench helped them to come back into the frantic game. The fixture could be termed as the quintessential ‘game of two halves’ as Real Madrid scored early on through Gareth Bale in the first half and looked to dominate the game.

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However, coming out after the break, Levante were a different side altogether as Roger Marti scored within seconds of the restart. Soon after, Jose Campana struck a thunderous volley off a looping Jorge de Frutos cross past Madrid shot-stopper Thibaut Courtois to give Levante the lead and put them in the driver’s seat. 

Looking to react to the sudden charge from the club from Valencia, Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti made four quick substitutions.

The introduction of Vinicius and Rodrygo gave Madrid the pace advantage over Levante. For his first goal, Vinicius, breathing on the shoulder of the last man, outpaced the Levante backline and latched onto a delicious ball from Casemiro from deep and tucked it home with his weaker left foot past keeper Aitor Fernandez. 

The 21-year-old Brazilian has been heavily criticised for his finishing and rightly so, however, the composure he showed tonight is surely proof of the immense time he is putting on his weaknesses.

Back on level terms, Madrid were adventurous in their effort to look for the winner but ended up conceding a third to Levante centre-back Rober Pier just shy of the 80-minute mark.

The goal came from a defensive error from David Alaba, who otherwise had an exceptional game for his new club. Down a goal, desperate, Real Madrid put all their efforts to find an equaliser and find they did. 

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Set up by Karim Benzema wide of the far post, Vinicius floored the defender with a shimmy and beat Fernandez from an impossible angle with an audacious chip to level the tie. 

However, there was more late drama to arrive as Madrid had a penalty shout on Luka Jovic denied and Levante keeper Aitor Fernandez was shown the red card late in the second half for handling the ball outside the 18-yard box.

While a draw might be the just result at the end of a thrilling encounter, Real Madrid should see this as a point gained and not two points lost.