Real Madrid keep LaLiga hopes alive with last-gasp Mbappé goal

Playing at the Bernabéu is hell on Earth for any team: sitting back in two banks of four, constantly under pressure, defending onslaught after onslaught, trying to stay in shape, and being ready on the counter-attack, is a gargantuan feat of concentration and organisation.

And it’s not something Real Madrid should be doing at their own home.

The whistles, you’d think, would remind them of that.

Against 16th-placed Rayo Vallecano, their cross-town neighbours, Los Blancos huffed and puffed when it came to putting the small, round ball into the big, wide goal.

Mbappé hit the post, as did Camavinga, and Ceballos’ effort fizzed just wide, but Arbeloa’s side, however refreshed and ‘different’ they may be, never looked like taking absolute control of taking the game against the team yet to win a major trophy in their history and who sit just a point from the second division.

Rayo didn’t command the entire game, it must be said: swathes of the match saw Real Madrid arrive on the edge of their opponent’s box, yet larger swathes saw the ball either cleared, returned, or put wide by a team who knew their plan and how to execute it.

With every failed attempt that Rayo goalkeeper Batalla watched come and go, the groans from the stands grew louder; sighs became shouts which became screams and eventually gasps of exasperation down the stairs and to the bar. The anger filtered onto the pitch where it tipped over into pushes and explosions as players struggled to cope with the pressure-cooker atmosphere around them. The Bernabéu was at full-tilt, just not in the way that is conducive to spurring on the 15-time European champions.

The game had started well for the home side: Vini Jr squirmed and morphed into an inter-dimensional traveller and he split his atoms apart, burst through an otherwise indivisible gap between two defenders, popped back into existence, and whipped the ball into the top corner of the goal.

But the flurry of fury soon returned, and the tone of the noise Vinicius initiated curled into rage as Jorge de Frutos copied his Brazilian opponent and dove into the box with the ball glued to his feet before striking past Courtois.

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It was all square on the scoreboard for a long while as tempers flared and although a late penalty saw them take the three points thanks to a clumsy challenge from young defender Mendy, which Mbappé duly dispatched, the conclusion about this Real Madrid team as a whole remained the same: they’re just not very good and haven’t been so for a long time. The LaLiga race remains alive, but the pressure is on them to turn things up before it gets too late.

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