Real leave it late against Levante

Alvaro Morata scored his first senior goal to give Real Madrid a hard-fought 2-1 away win against Levante.

Terrible weather on the east coast of Spain saw the game start in a damp, swampy conditions . The wet pitch though, only looked to favour the home team as they began the brighter of the two sides, roughing up Los Blancos.

Long, pumping balls into the box and heavy challenges were causing Jose Mourinho's side all sorts of issues, but it was they who took the lead against the run of play.

A free kick from Xabi Alonso ended at the feet of Cristiano Ronaldo, who fired in from eight yards.

Los Blancos slowly started to assert their dominance, but were disjointed time and again by the tough-tackling of the Granotes.

The challenges flew in and the pitch got more sodden, but Real went in at half-time a goal to the good.

After the break, Iker Casillas was kept busy with a couple of speculative long-range efforts, but the best chance came to Pepe, who headed against the crossbar from a corner.

The capital club were knocking on the door, but were hit with a sucker-punch on the hour-mark as Angel was laid in and chipped the ball over the on-rushing goalkeeper.

Just moments later however, that equaliser was almost made null and void as Madrid were given a penalty after a foul on Callejon. Xabi Alonso stepped up to take the spot kick, but his effort was saved by Gustavo Munua.

The game wasn’t dead though for the away side, as with just moments left a Xabi Alonso free-kick found Morata, and with his very first touch of the game, the 19-year-old scored his debut goal to give Real Madrid all three points.

Levante 1-2 Real Madrid

Scorers: Angel 63 (L); Ronaldo 21 (RM), Morata 84 (RM)

Levante: Munua; Pedro Lopez, Ballesteros, David Navarro, Juanfran; Diop, Iborra; El Zhar (Angel 55), Barkero (Michel 86), Juanlu; Martins

Real Madrid: Casillas; Arbeloa (Kaka 70), Pepe, Ramos, Coentrao; Essien, Xabi Alonso; Di Maria, Ozil (Morata 83), Callejon; Ronaldo (Albiol 45)

La Liga - Club News