Real Mallorca 2-1 Real Madrid: Advantage Barcelona in title race as Muriqi sends Son Moix wild with late winner
Barcelona will move seven points clear of Real Madrid if they win tonight
Real Madrid’s title challenge suffered a major malfunction this afternoon after Vedat Muriqi struck in injury-time to hand Real Mallorca a vital win in their fight to avoid relegation.
It looked as though Madrid had salvaged a draw when substitute Eder Militao cancelled out Manu Morlanes’ opener with two minutes to go.
It was harsh on Mallorca but they found the inner belief to come again and Son Moix went wild when Muriqi hammered high into the net in the first of five added minutes to help his side move out of the bottom three with a memorable victory.
Madrid will slip seven points behind leaders Barcelona if the Catalans win at Atletico Madrid later today.
Table of Contents
Leaving out Vinicius Jr comes back to haunt Real Madrid
Vinicius Jr was left on the bench for the first hour before being brought on by coach Alvaro Arbeloa who was also able to welcome back Militao and Jude Bellingham from injury.
But that was the only bit of good news for Madrid, who were repeatedly denied by Mallorca goalkeeper Leo Roman before running out of ideas as the match progressed. The 25-year-old made several impressive stops and his team-mates capitalised by taking the lead three minutes before the break.
Pablo Maffeo was the architect with a driving run down the right and his pull back was perfect for Morlanes to fire past Andriy Lunin.
Kylian Mbappe was fit enough to start for Madrid and he helped create Madrid’s first chance of note after 17 minutes with a floated cross to the back post that Manuel Angel, making his first start, headed straight at Roman.
Roman then denied Mbappe twice in the space of three minutes. First he got down well to block a shot with his foot after the former PSG striker had been played through on goal by Arda Guler. He then made a smart save to keep out Mbappe’s effort that seemed to be heading towards the bottom corner.
Guler was an instrumental figure for Madrid and he came close to breaking the deadlock after 34 minutes but his back-post effort was brilliantly saved by Roman.
Having offered little as an attacking threat, Mallorca came on strong before the break.
Morlanes headed agonisingly over after 36 minutes but did find the back of the net six minutes later.
Madrid find equaliser only to be stung by Muriqi late on
Roman denied Mbappe once again after 57 mines before Arbeloa belatedly called on Vinicius Jr, bringing him on as part of a triple change that also saw Bellingham and Militao introduced.
It did little to improve Madrid, who continued to struggle in the final third with both Trent Alexander-Arnold and Guler wasting good positions with sloppy passes.
When they did manage to conjure an opening, their finishing was wayward, Aurelien Tchouameni dragging an effort woefully wide when well placed after 79 minutes.
Madrid weren’t exactly pouring forward in search of an equaliser but they did find one courtesy of a set-piece with two minutes left.
Alexander-Arnold curled in a right-wing corner and Militao rose highest to plant a header past Roman and into the net.
It seemed like only one side would go on and win it but the away fans’ hopes were dashed when Mateo Joseph laid the ball off to Muriqi and he took it in his stride before firing past Lunin for his 19th league goal of a remarkable season.