Arbeloa returns to Mestalla, from flashpoint with Villa to that kick on Iker Casillas | OneFootball

Arbeloa’s Real Madrid head to Mestalla, a ground that often taxes them. AS notes only three wins in the last 11 league visits, and Vinicius, Bellingham and Rodrygo are absent. They also come off a Lisbon setback and a last-gasp win over Rayo at the Bernabéu.

Madrid need victory to keep pressure on Barcelona. For Arbeloa the place carries mixed memories from his playing days. He faced Valencia there four times and won them all, one 0-5, the other three 2-3.

Here he lifted the 2011 Copa del Rey against Guardiola’s Barcelona, who had won 5-0 earlier that season in José Mourinho’s first year. Arbeloa played all 120 minutes and Cristiano Ronaldo decided it with a header. He also had a bruising duel with David Villa.

On 28 minutes both fell in a challenge, and as they rose Arbeloa stepped on Villa’s ankle. The striker was in clear pain. Ramos and Arbeloa hauled him up, accusing him of play-acting, a familiar charge then, and a scuffle soon cooled, with no card for Arbeloa.

In January 2013 La Liga returned to Mestalla with Madrid winning 2-3, yet the night proved pivotal for Iker Casillas. Days earlier at La Rosaleda he had been dropped for Adán despite no injury amid dressing-room and media tensions, and Madrid lost.

Casillas soon returned, but in Valencia Arbeloa, trying to clear, kicked the keeper’s left hand, fracturing it and ruling him out for weeks. With the window open Madrid signed Diego López from Sevilla. Casillas recovered, did not play again that season, shared duties the next, then left for Porto in 2015.

Source: AS