BarcelonaReal Madrid is one step away from doing the classic thing with a full stomach: letting go of La Liga to focus on the Champions League and putting more emphasis on winning the Copa del Rey and fulfilling the predictions for the Club World Cup , which he plays next week. This is demonstrated by the defeat that the white team suffered on Sunday afternoon in Son Moix against Javier Aguirre’s ever-charged Mallorca.
Without the injured Karim Benzema and with a last-minute setback for Thibaut Courtois, who noticed discomfort in the warm-up, the reigning League and European champions crashed against a very rocky opponent who made good the lead which he achieved in the 13th minute thanks to a goal in his own goal by Nacho Fernández when he fought with Vedat Muriqi, the reference in Mallorca’s attack, for an aerial ball.
That Madrid was bothered by the trip to Mallorca was already noticeable by hearing the words of its coach, Carlo Ancelotti, in this week’s press conferences. “We have to stop. It’s not normal that after playing against Valencia [dijous a les 21 hores] less than 72 hours pass and we compete again [a Son Moix, a les 14 hores]”, said the Italian coach, who was consistent with his reflections and rested the line-up to his creative mainstays in the core, Kroos and Modric, thinking about Wednesday’s semi-final of the Club World Cup against the Egypt’s Al-Ahly also did not want to mess with Alaba, who was just returning to the squad after overcoming an injury.
Between one thing and another, the You meringues they went out on the Son Moix turf with a defense of circumstances – only Carvajal is a regular starter –, a very uncoordinated midfield and Vinícius leading an attack on his own without a clear reference. The Brazilian, by the way, was booed and booed every time he touched the ball. In Mallorca they do not forgive him that in the first leg at the Bernabéu, Maffeo and Raíllo danced more than the score with the score in their favor. In the return, the Balearic defensive duo took a particular revenge.
Marco Asensio misses a penalty at home
After a first half with a lot of intensity and few chances beyond Nacho’s beautiful and subtle Vaseline own goal on Lunin, the visitors had the opportunity to equalize the game through an interpretable penalty from the local goalkeeper , Rajkovic, over Vinícius, but Asensio, a native of Palma and Mallorcan by training, did not deceive the Serbian goalkeeper, who rejected the shot without an option to reply. It was only the 60th minute, and the goal made the Son Moix crowd explode, determined to accompany their players in the process of achieving one of the most precious victories of the season. Forced by the unfavorable result, Ancelotti looked to revolutionize the duel with Modric, Kroos, Alaba and a defenestrated Mariano, but it was too late for his rotation plan to stop going wrong.
The interested account of uncritical Madridism will be that the calendar has affected the hopes of the whites in the League, a title that will begin to lose interest and importance as the Champions League approaches and, above all, as Barça, very solvent in the state tournament, widen their gap at the top of the standings. With the defeat of their eternal opponent in Mallorca, the Blaugrana, who overcame Sevilla without complications, already have an eight-point margin with the entire second round ahead of them and most of the theoretically difficult journeys marked with sight.
- Mallorca: Rajkovic; Maffeo, Gio Gonzalez, Raillo, Nastasic, Jaume Costa; Baba (Battaglia, 78′), Ruiz de Galarreta (Grenier, 92′), Dani Rodriguez, Kang-in Lee (Sanchez, 78′); and Muriqui. Coach: Javier Aguirre
- Real Madrid: Lunín; Carvajal, Nacho, Rudiger, Camavinga; Tchouaméni (Kroos, 71′), Valverde (Modric, 64′), Ceballos (Alaba, 71′); Asensio (Mariano, 71′), Rodrygo i Vinícius. Coach: Carlo Ancelotti
- Goals: 1-0 Nacho (PP) (13′)
- Referee: Alejandro Hernández Hernández (Canary Committee)
- Yellow cards: Vinícius (44′), Ceballos (45′), Valverde (64′), Amath (72′), Ruiz de Galarreta (80′), Modric (81′), Maffeo (88′), Mariano (90 ‘), Rail (92’)
- Red cards: None
- Stadium: Son Moix