RCD Mallorca Tame the Mighty Madrid (1–1) — English Match Review

Admit it — An Mbappe-led Real Madrid is a scary, hopeless prospect for all Los Piratas fans.

However, with hope all we had, the Mallorca faithful filled the Son Moix with 23,000+ heated fan ready to back the boys until the final whistle.

As the red flairs lit the night sky and the smoke blew over the Balerics — RCD Mallorca ended the game with one point secured after a hart fought 1–1 match against Los Blancos.

Real Madrid took the lead in just 13 minutes, a Rodrygo curler into the net after a slick Vini Jr backheel.

But it was Mallorca who looked more hungry, with the nervous-pints being drunk by the raucous home crowd roaring them forward they became confident in the attack and dealt with the far superior Madrid possession like it was a training match.

Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois made three cracking saves to keep the visitor’s lead, but there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop the ever-present Vedat Muriqi from towering over the Madrid defence to deliver a powerful header from a corner in the 53rd minute.

Our Dominik Greif in goal for Mallorca had a stunning night, keeping at bay the “New Galacticos” with dives and interceptions a-plenty.

It got worse for the reigning league champions, as they ended the match with 10-men after defender Ferland Mendy was shown a straight red for a high tackle deep into added time — sure, Muriqi may have milked it, a bit, but it was a pretty nasty effort and red-worthy nonetheless.

As the referee blew the full-time whistle, you could look at the stats and argue that Real Madrid let this one slip. But for those of us watching, it was a calm and collected performance from a well-drilled Mallorca that shined the brightest against a still-to-be-refined Real Madrid with their incredible array of superstars.

With only 34% of the possession, Mallorca still had the higher xG, and went toe-to-toe with Madrid for shots (12/13) and shots on target (5/5).

We went ahead, we had chances to score the second, and then in the second half, we lacked balance.

We conceded counterattacks. It was not a good game; it was quite clear that we need to defend better and have better balance on the pitch.

Real Madrid coach and all round cool dude Carlo Ancelotti speaking openly about the game afterwards revealed he thought it was not a good game — which is true…for Madrid fans.

For us, and the RCD Mallorca fans around the globe we saw this as a statement match and placed our flag in the division as a team not to be run over.

Mallorca coach Jagoba Arrasate was facing his first match in charge, and produced the goods on an evening with little hope at the beginning — earning a credible point.

To sum it up, it was a below average start for the defending champions because if it were not for Mallorca fumbling our chances late in the 2nd half, Los Blancos were staring at a defeat!

This match is something — even if you’re still sceptical about the season ahead — worth standing and applauding from our lads in red.