Real Madrid 1-2 Levante: Militao red and Roger Marti redeems

Real Madrid fell further off the pace in the title race after a defeat by Levante on Saturday.

They had 10 men for most of the game after Eder Militao was sent off in the ninth minute for bringing down Sergio Leon as he ran through on goal.

That conditioned the rest of the game for Zinedine Zidane, well, David Bettoni’s team, but they did almost immediately go ahead.

Marco Asensio grabbed the goal with a good finish but it was made by a brilliant pass by midfielder Toni Kroos, splitting the visitors in half.

After that it was all Levante, with Thibaut Courtois denying Roger Marti twice in quick succession.

Jose Morales levelled with a brilliant finish from Jorge Miramon’s cross, with Alvaro Odriozola conspicuous by his absence.

Courtois also stopped frustrated forward Roger finding the net from the penalty spot after the break, saving his effort with one hand.

However the Levante forward had the last laugh, finishing superbly after a short-corner was worked to him in the box.

"I think all of the [refereeing] decisions can be seen in different ways, you'll know better than me if they were correct or not," Courtois said.

"For the red card there were two players with Sergio Leon so it's a questionable decision if [Militao] was the last man or not.

"They are a team that are very good on the ball. We struggled to take it off them being a man down. We needed to be better and more precise when playing our attacking football.”

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