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It was Madrid's fourth straight league victory, and they now trail the La Liga leaders only on goal difference. Federico Valverde and Guler scored eight minutes apart in the first half, and Guler then set up Mbappe for his 13th league goal of the season 15 minutes from time. Valencia, who finished with 10 men after Jose Gaya's red card, stay 19th on nine points, a point from safety, after a seventh league defeat in 12 games.
The numbers show how one-sided it was. Madrid had 68% of the ball, 19 shots to Valencia's four and 2.26 expected goals (xG) to 0.16. They had 33 touches in the Valencia box, while the hosts managed five in Madrid's, and Valencia did not create a single big chance.
Valencia's tactical setup
Javier Aguirre set Valencia up in a 5-3-2, with Pepelu, Cesar Tarrega, Justin de Haas, Pablo Maffeo and Gaya in the back line, a midfield of Javi Guerra, Guido Rodriguez and Aaron Mayol, and Umar Sadiq and Arnaut Danjuma up front. Valencia sat deep and barely got out of their own half early on. By the 16th minute, they had not touched the ball in the Madrid half.
When they could not get the ball back, they fouled. Valencia committed 26 fouls to Madrid's six, picked up four yellow cards and a red, and six of those fouls were on Mbappe alone.
Their best spell came between the 18th and 21st minutes, and it started with a Madrid mistake. Aurelien Tchouameni gave the ball away on the edge of his own box and Mayol's half-volley had to be tipped over by Thibaut Courtois. From the resulting corner, the ball was dinked back into the box and Guido Rodriguez tapped in, but he was a yard offside. Moments later, Marc Cucurella had to make a last-ditch clearance from a Valencia cross.
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Most of Valencia's attacks, 54% of them, came down their right. Their clearest chance, though, came on the other side. In the 66th minute, Guerra slipped a through ball to Danjuma, who got the better of Valverde and forced Courtois into a low save from a tight angle.
Real Madrid's tactical setup
Jose Mourinho went with a 4-2-3-1. Valverde, the captain, played at right-back, with Ibrahima Konate and Dean Huijsen in the middle and Cucurella on the left. Tchouameni and Bernardo Silva sat in front of the back four, with Guler, Jude Bellingham and Yan Diomande behind Mbappe.
Madrid controlled the ball from the start, completing 568 of their 627 passes (91%), and 343 of those accurate passes came in the Valencia half. Their attack leaned heavily to the left, with 49% of their attacks coming down that flank, compared with 23% through the middle. That was the side of Cucurella and Diomande. Diomande glided past two defenders in the 15th minute, and by the 40th minute Valencia were having to double up on him. Bellingham and Cucurella combined there too, and a link-up between the two took the left-back to the byline as early as the seventh minute.
Without the ball, Madrid were well organised. When Valencia launched a counter in the eighth minute, seven Madrid players were immediately back behind the ball.
The tactical chess match
The key battle was on Madrid's left, against Valencia's right, the same flank where most of both teams' attacks came. Maffeo was under pressure there all night. He fouled Diomande in the 15th minute, Cucurella in the 21st and 23rd, and Mbappe in the 26th, when a ball over the top was heading for the French forward and Maffeo tripped him on the edge of the box. He escaped with a yellow card, but the free-kick led to the opener. Mbappe's effort came back off the wall and Valverde drove a low shot in from 20 yards.
The second goal came from sustained pressure rather than a counter. Bellingham reached the byline and his cut-back took a deflection, dropping for Guler to volley into an empty net eight minutes after the first.
The other weapon was the ball in behind. Guler repeatedly looked for Mbappe's runs against Valencia's back five. His through ball had too much on it in the 31st minute and Stole Dimitrievski collected, but another one in the 55th minute found Mbappe inside the box, and the Valencia goalkeeper saved his shot. In the 75th minute, the pass was perfect. Mbappe rounded Dimitrievski with his first touch and rolled the ball into an empty net with his second. That chance alone was worth 0.79 xG, more than a third of Madrid's total.
Dimitrievski kept the score down for a long time. He made eight saves, as Madrid put 11 shots on target, and between the 55th and 68th minutes he denied Mbappe three times and Bellingham twice. Madrid's expected goals on target reached 3.67, while Valencia, who did not have a shot between the 32nd and 66th minutes, finished with two efforts on target.
In-game adjustments
Aguirre made a change at half-time, taking off defender De Haas and sending on Luis Rioja. Valencia started the second half brightly, but Konate ended a promising attack with a fine tackle on Sadiq inside the penalty area. Sadiq was replaced by Aimar Blazquez in the 58th minute, and four minutes later Aguirre withdrew both of his booked players, with Arnau Martinez coming on for Maffeo and Filip Ugrinic for Guido Rodriguez.
The space behind the back line finished the game as a contest. After Mbappe's goal, Madrid broke again in the 79th minute. Mbappe tapped the ball past Gaya, who was the last man on the halfway line, and the Valencia captain was sent off for bringing him down as he was about to run clear. Aguirre then replaced midfielder Guerra with defender Jesus Vazquez.
Mourinho waited until the 83rd minute to use his bench, bringing on Brahim Diaz, Endrick and Eduardo Camavinga for Diomande, Bernardo and Guler. The changes took the sting out of the game, and Madrid kept the ball for long spells against 10 men. Thiago Pitarch and Carlos Espi replaced Bellingham and Mbappe in the 90th minute, and Cucurella almost created a fourth when he headed back for Brahim, whose shot was smothered by Dimitrievski.
Conclusion
Valencia's plan was to defend deep with five at the back and break up the game with fouls, but it did not stop Madrid creating chances. Mourinho's side got their reward by attacking down the left, where Maffeo struggled all night, and by using Guler's passing to find Mbappe in behind. Only Dimitrievski's saves kept the scoreline down, and the result leaves Madrid level with Barcelona at the top while Valencia remain in the relegation zone.