Valencia (Spain), April 4 (IANS) Valencia beat a cautious Real Madrid 2-1 in a match where the capital squad dominated play for the most part but still suffered a defeat.

The two teams began their encounter with great caution and neither squad dared to shift their defence around, thus making the first half hour a pretty boring affair, reports Efe news.

It was Goncalo Guedes who scored the opener for the home squad in the 35th minute on a powerful blast from within the area that goaltender Keylor Navas could not handle on Wednesday night.

In the 83rd minute, Ezequiel Garay scored on a great conversion from Daniel Parejo for the home squad from a corner kick.

Madrid had run out of time to salvage the match, but it was Karim Benzema again - just as he had done against Huesca - swooping in in stoppage time to score his team's lone goal. This time, however, it didn't matter and coach Zinedine Zidane had to post his first loss since returning.

--IANS kk/bg