Carlos Espe’s late winner spares Marc Cucurella from Real Madrid backlash

Carlos Espe’s stoppage-time goal for Real Madrid spared team-mate Marc Cucurella from a wave of criticism after the club’s 3-2 victory over Elche in LaLiga on Tuesday.

Real Madrid appeared to be in control after establishing a two-goal lead, but their performance deteriorated badly after half-time. Elche took advantage to level the match before Espe, a summer signing who has only recently joined the club, came off the bench to score the decisive goal in added time.

According to Mundo Deportivo, that late intervention prevented Cucurella from becoming the main focus of criticism after he was directly involved in both of Elche’s goals.

Elche began their comeback in the 71st minute when Abel Osorio rose above Cucurella to head the ball into the net. The left-back’s more serious error came 12 minutes later, when he failed to clear the danger. The loose ball ultimately allowed Fer Nino to score Elche’s second goal and make it 2-2.

Cucurella would have faced strong criticism for the mistake had Real Madrid failed to recover. However, Mundo Deportivo also pointed to a wider decline from the team during the second half, while Vinicius Junior missed three clear opportunities to score.

The newspaper noted that those chances were the type normally expected to be converted by a forward at the peak of his form. Espe’s late strike instead ensured that Real Madrid left with all three points and that attention did not remain solely on Cucurella’s errors.

Mundo Deportivo also referred to an incident from Cucurella’s time at Chelsea two years ago, when the defender blamed his boots after two early goals conceded against Tottenham in the London derby.

“This time, in the move that led to the 2-2 equaliser, Cucurella could not blame his boots for the opponents’ goals, as he did two years ago in the match between Tottenham and Chelsea, when two slips from him led to Tottenham scoring twice in the opening minutes of the London derby,” the newspaper said.

“On that day, Cucurella changed his boots, got rid of them, posted a picture on Instagram and apologised to Chelsea supporters.”

The victory marked a dramatic turnaround for Real Madrid, who had allowed a match they were comfortably leading to become level before Espe’s decisive contribution in the final moments.