Real Madrid 2-1 Rayo Vallecano: Los Blancos whistled off at half time but manage win with 100th minute spotkick
In the end, Real Madrid grabbed all three points after Kylian Mbappe put away yet another penalty. Minutes earlier the game had hung very much in the balance, until Rayo Vallecano collapsed and Alvaro Arbeloa’s side duly capitalised.
The win allows Madrid to keep pressure on Barcelona at the top. They remain one point behind the Catalans with 16 games to go.
Vinicius Junior ended his 13-game goal drought in La Liga with an excellent strike, putting Madrid 1-0 up with a quarter of an hour played in the first half. The Brazilian magicked his way into the box on the left, twisting and throwing a coterie of Rayo defenders into confusion, before curling a shot into the top corner with a bang.
Arbeloa’s side had suffered an early setback as Jude Bellingham went down after 10 minutes clutching the back of his thigh. He was replaced by Brahim Diaz.
Madrid had started brightly and continued to create chances throughout the half. Diaz danced past Alvaro Garcia and stole into the box but his sneaky shot was met by Augusto Batalla’s strong hand. Vinicius could only fire wide on the rebound.
But Rayo also had really good moments. Indeed for much of 90 minutes an open game was played at the Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid always seeming in danger of conceding. Rayo had a lot of freedom around the half spaces in front of Madrid’s box. Their best chance in the first period was when Ilias Akhomach dribbled unchecked into the box but dragged his shot wide.
Disgusted, Madrid fans whistled their players off at half time.
Almost immediately into the second half, things went even worse after Garcia nodded down for Jorge de Fruto to slam emphatically past Thibaut Courtois. Madrid had been complacent after coming back out of the tunnel and were rightly punished.
They could have gone down after the hour when they tottered about in a freekick and Andrei Ratiu stole the ball and raced down the other end on turbo boost, but his one-man counterattack came to nothing after Courtois rushed out to block.
Mbappe had his own chance to give Madrid the lead, scorching past the onrushing goalkeeper Batalla 40 yards from goal, but as he ran into the box from an increasingly acute angle he was unable to keep the shot down and could only find the crossbar.
Rayo then went into self-destruct mode in the late stages. Pathe Ciss got sent off for a studs-on challenge on Dani Ceballos and Madrid twisted the screw. Eduardo Camavinga hit the post and Diaz’s powerful strike was parried by Batalla, before an overzealous Nobel Mendy slammed his leg into Diaz’s gut as he tried to clear in the box, the referee pointing to the spot.
Mbappe stepped up in front of the Bernabeu faithful and converted. Then Pep Chavarria received a second yellow for shoving Rodrygo as Rayo ended the evening with nine men.
