Real Madrid went a goal down with merely five minutes to go. However, Bellingham’s winner came seven minutes into the stoppage time as the team progressed to 43 points, just two ahead of the second-placed Atletico Madrid, who have a match in hand.
Federico Valverde and Hugo Duro from both sides came touchingly close to breaking the deadlock as soon as the game began, but their respective efforts were blocked in time.
Duro managed to get Valencia ahead in the 27th minute by tapping into an open goal, though Thibaut Courtois had blocked Javi Guerra’s close-range shot.
Real pushed hard for an equaliser, but Bellingham missed a golden chance to score with a poor penalty that hit the post after Enzo Barrenechea’s foul on Kylian Mbappe in the 55th minute.
Mbappe thought he had equalised five minutes later, but his strike was disallowed by the VAR for offside.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side were then reduced to 10 men in the 79th minute when Vinicius Jr was shown a straight red card for slapping Valencia goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski.
The Brazil forward later apologised for his behaviour on his X account where he wrote: “Sorry and thank you team”.
But substitute Modric finally brought the visitors level when he beat Dimitrievski with a low shot off Bellingham’s through ball five minutes from time.
The England midfielder then sealed the win, bearing down on goal before calmly beating the keeper with a right-footed finish to hand the hosts their first loss under new coach Carlos Corberan.
“The missed penalty gave (Bellingham) extra motivation, he gave a few minutes as only he can do. He worked hard, the goal is a deserved reward for him for the game he played,” coach Ancelotti told reporters.
Valencia remain second-bottom with 12 points, four points from the safety zone.
“It hurts a lot to lose like this. We are not in a good momentum and we had chances,” Valencia striker Duro told Movistar.
“It hurts a lot to lose the advantage like that, especially after the sending off. We have to focus on the pitch. Whatever is on the outside doesn’t matter to us. The fans have helped us.”
(With Reuters inputs)
