Real Madrid looked to have thrown away a commanding night in Elche. Then Carlos Espí arrived.
The substitute struck in stoppage time to secure a dramatic 3–2 victory at the Martínez Valero after Elche fought back from two goals down and pulled level with seven minutes of normal time remaining.
Matías Dituro’s own goal put Madrid ahead in the 25th minute, Kylian Mbappé made it 2–0 eight minutes later, before Abiel Osorio and Fer Niño dragged Elche back into the contest in the second half. Carlos Espí then scored in the 91st minute to decide it.
Madrid had controlled the first half. Arda Güler’s free-kick struck the frame of the goal and rebounded in off Dituro for the opener, before Mbappé doubled the advantage after a low delivery from Yan Diomande. Real Madrid’s official match report described the visitors as dominant before the break.
At 2–0, the game looked under control.
Elche refused to disappear.
Osorio headed past Thibaut Courtois in the 71st minute, and Fer Niño struck in the 83rd to complete the comeback and transform a comfortable Madrid lead into a late survival test.
That changed the pressure completely.
Madrid pushed again rather than settle for a point. Jude Bellingham helped build the decisive move from the left, Mbappé carried the attack into the area and supplied Espí, who finished from close range only minutes after coming off the bench.
For Espí, it was the intervention every substitute wants: enter late, find one opening and leave with the match attached to your name.
For Madrid, the scoreline tells only half the story.
They had enough attacking quality to establish a two-goal advantage, but Elche exposed how quickly control can disappear when momentum turns. Osorio’s goal gave the home side belief. Niño’s equalizer turned belief into genuine danger.
Madrid then needed one final attack to prevent a commanding position from becoming two dropped points.
Mbappé remained central to the outcome. He scored Madrid’s second and supplied the decisive pass for Espí’s winner, giving him direct involvement in two of the visitors’ three goals.
But the closing image belonged to Espí.
The victory is Real Madrid’s fifth league win of the campaign, secured only after Elche had erased a two-goal deficit.
Madrid leave Elche with three points.
They also leave with a warning: a match that looked settled became a fight for survival and only a stoppage-time substitute stopped the comeback from becoming a collapse.
