Real Madrid fell to Mallorca, jeopardizing their hopes of winning La Liga

• Real Mallorca beat Real Madrid 1-0 on Sunday.
• Real Madrid now trails Barcelona by five points in the standings.
• Nacho scored an own goal and Marco Asensio missed a penalty for Los Blancos.

Real Madrid‘s hopes of successfully retaining their La Liga title were crushed on Sunday as Real Mallorca defeated Real Madrid 1-0. Real Madrid is currently five points behind Barcelona in the standings.

Later on, the Catalans play host to Sevilla and have the opportunity to extend their lead to eight points after a dejected Madrid lost to Javier Aguirre’s team and Marco Asensio missed a penalty against his former team.

The clubs were separated in a hard-fought match, which was regularly halted by different infractions from the hosts, by Nacho’s looping header into his own net in the 13th minute.

Vinicius Junior, a winger, engaged in a persistent struggle with Mallorca’s players and fans, but the islanders fought off Los Blancos to secure an incredible victory.

Mallorca committed 29 fouls in total, with Vinicius receiving 10 of them.

“I believe there is an atmosphere building around Vinicius that does not benefit anyone, not the player, not football, not the fans, who eventually become attached with the youngster,” Nacho told Movistar.

“We all have to enjoy football, which is a lovely sport — we have to set aside controversies and rubbish.”

Real Madrid were without goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who was injured during the warm-up, as well as injured Karim Benzema, Eder Militao, and Ferland Mendy, among others.

Due in large part to the longstanding animosity between Mallorca and Vinicius, the game was tense from the outset.

The Brazilian winger has received repeated criticism from Mallorca captain Antonio Raillo for showing disrespect to opponents, and the captain indicated he wouldn’t use the player as an example for his kid.

When Vinicius was in possession of the ball, home supporters whistled him and sang Raillo’s name.

Carlo Ancelotti was also annoyed that Madrid got off to a slow start because they were playing in the early afternoon after playing Valencia on Thursday night.

Nacho’s attempted header gave Mallorca the lead when Dani Rodriguez’s left-side in-swinging cross looped over Courtois’ replacement Andriy Lunin and dipped just under the crossbar.

Vedat Muriqi, a Mallorca target player who initially thought to have scored the goal, put Nacho under siege.

It’s been six games since I last scored, but Muriqi replied, “I don’t care if it’s not mine as long as we win.

In the first half, the hosts effectively restrained Vinicius and forced Madrid to take long-range potshots.

After numerous fouls against him went unpunished, Pablo Maffeo was left incensed when Vinicius was given a booking for treading on his foot.

As the teams entered the locker rooms for the half, Dani Ceballos fiercely objected to the officials and was also booked.

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