Dramatic Mbappe penalty steals win for Real Madrid
Kylian Mbappe scored a 100th-minute penalty to earn Real Madrid a dramatic 2-1 win against Rayo Vallecano, who finished with nine men, in front of a frustrated Santiago Bernabeu.
The France superstar kept his cool against Madrid's city rival on an otherwise underwhelming outing after Brahim Diaz won a last-gasp spot-kick from Nobel Mendy.
Jorge de Frutos had cancelled out Vinicius Junior's fine opener in an ill-tempered fixture, which saw Pathe Ciss dismissed for the visitors with 10 minutes to go.
Pep Chavarria also saw red as his frustration boiled over late on, as Madrid moved within a point of LaLiga leader Barcelona.
Jude Bellingham hobbled off early on for Madrid, but Vinicius put the host in front after 15 minutes when he twisted and turned into the area before bending a wonderful effort into the top-right corner.
The home discontent reached a fever pitch when De Frutos fired past Thibaut Courtois from Alvaro Garcia's knock-back, before Vinicius had penalty shouts for a tumble up against Florian Lejeune waved away.
Vinicius wastefully diverted one over the top from a Guler free-kick, and he was grateful shortly after when Courtois superbly stood up to deny Andrei Ratiu one-on-one after the Vallecano full-back had superbly broken clear one-on-one.
Mbappe had his head in his hands when he rounded the onrushing Batalla, only to strike his effort from outside the area against the crossbar with the goal wide open.
Ciss left Vallecano with an uphill battle after an awful lunging challenge on Dani Ceballos, whose whipped cross then saw Eduardo Camavinga flick against the right post shortly after.
But Madrid was handed a golden opportunity right at the death when Mendy clumsily booted Brahim Diaz in the area, allowing Mbappe to clinically pick out the bottom-left corner, with Chavarria seeing red later when a push on Rodrygo earned a second yellow.
