Real Madrid upset at Valencia to reopen La Liga title race

Real Madrid was sitting pretty.

Going into its makeup away game at Valencia on Wednesday, that is. After all, Real already led La Liga by a point and had two games in hand. Potentially, that made it a seven-point lead over a struggling Barcelona, just about locking up the title race.

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Valencia remains, in stature and reach at least, one of the juggernauts of Spanish soccer. But it is living through yet another disastrous and chaotic season. Coming into this match, it sat in 15th place and was on its fourth manager of the year – Voro, who was also its second manager this season and who is in his fifth spell as the club’s caretaker.

As usual, Valencia had lost its three best players in the offseason – Paco Alcacer and Andre Gomes to Barcelona and Shkodran Mustafi to Arsenal – and it flirted with relegation just a few months ago.

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But Real, resting Gareth Bale, who has only just returned from a long-term injury, gave up two quick and shocking goals and Valencia would hold on for a 2-1 win.

In the fourth minute, Juventus loanee Simone Zaza put Valencia ahead with a stupendous goal. Munir, on loan from Barcelona, popped a cross in to the Italian. He took a touch off his thigh, spun around on defender Raphael Varane and volleyed an extraordinary shot past goalkeeper Keylor Navas.

Then, five minutes later, Varane committed a midfield turnover with his teammates largely out of position. Valencia stormed away and Fabian Orellana beat Navas to his near post on a deft Nani setup.

It was the quickest two-goal deficit Real Madrid had incurred in more than 13 years.

Real had a full 80 minutes to set things right. And Munir soon had to clear a little dink from James Rodriguez off the line. Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema threatened with shots but Dani Alves had both covered. Dani Parejo then ripped a free kick at the near post, but Navas punched it away to keep Real in the game.

Before halftime, Real Madrid scored. Marcelo dropped a cross right into Ronaldo’s aerial trajectory, and the authoritative header by the Portuguese cut the lead in half.

Yet for all of Real’s dominance in the second half, it never did manage to pull an equalizer from the fire. In fact, Valencia was denied two very credible penalties. In the 68th minute, Zaza was slammed into in the box by Dani Carvajal, who surely didn’t use his shoulder legally. Munir was then spiked in the foot by Sergio Ramos just inside the box, sending him down. That one wasn’t called, either.

So on that score the outcome perhaps wasn’t entirely unfair, for all of Real’s superiority in possession and shooting.

At any rate, it may have swung the title race on its axis. Because Real Madrid and Barcelona, Real’s biggest title rivals, as usual, face off again on April 23. If the gap is just four points, or indeed less, everything is still possible. This is only the case because Barca managed to eke out a 2-1 win to beat Leganes on Sunday – had it failed to do that, things would have been different.

But Barca won. And now Real has lost. And La Liga is taking applicants for a champion again.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.