Real Madrid begin title defence with frustrating draw to Mallorca
We are still in August, and yet Real Madrid already have one trophy to their name this campaign. They produced a fantastic second-half display to defeat Atalanta BC in the UEFA Super Cup, with superstar summer signing Kylian Mbappe netting his first goal for his new club.
Unsurprisingly, the Frenchman was included in the starting line-up against Mallorca as Carlo Ancelotti’s men looked to get the defence of their league title off to the best possible start.
However, their opponents – last season’s Copa Del Rey finalists – have enjoyed a strong pre-season and flew out of the blocks early on. Samu Costa posed a threat, pulling an effort wide before forcing a strong save out of Thibaut Courtois.
Real, though, are rarely flustered, and it was they who broke the deadlock before the quarter-hour mark. Vinicius Junior was the provider, producing a clever backheel to release Rodrygo, and although his Brazilian compatriot still had plenty to do, he produced a sublime curled effort to beat Dominik Greif.
Madrid looked to add to their advantage, with Mbappé tapping into the side netting midway through the half, but a Courtois mistake almost cost Los Blancos shortly before the interval. Takuma Asano’s cross-cum-shot appeared to be tame, but the Belgian could only parry the effort into Vedat Muriqi’s path and needed to be alert to keep out the rebound. Shortly after the restart, though, Muriqi was not to be denied, powering a bullet header into the back of the net from Dani Rodríguez’s corner to restore parity.
Using Muriqi’s aerial prowess looked to be Mallorca’s best chance of earning a shock win, and the Kosovo international again troubled Courtois with a header a few minutes later. This time, though, the shot-stopper was equal to it. It had been a quiet opening hour for Mbappé, but he doesn’t need many moments to make an impact, and had Greif not gotten down well to keep out his low drive from distance, he may well have given his team the lead once more.
The former Paris Saint-Germain forward appeared to be finding his groove, and Greif was required to keep out another of his attempts. The visitors continued to push forward, but besides a Luka Modric effort that Greif parried away, they failed to create any real openings. Instead, Antonio Sanchez had the best opportunities of the closing stages, twice failing to hit the target when he really should have done.
While there was no winning goal, there was one more moment of action as Ferland Mendy received a late red card for a poor challenge on Muriqi. Mallorca will obviously be more pleased with the result than Real. Ancelotti will hope that this result is just a blip, while Jagoba Arrasate, in his first game as Mallorca manager, clearly has plenty to work with.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Vedat Muriqi (RCD Mallorca)
