Madrid's title hopes suffer after upset in Mallorca
Real Madrid's hopes of winning LaLiga took a massive blow as Vedat Muriqi fired in a stoppage-time winner to condemn it to a shock 2-1 defeat at Mallorca.
Manu Morlanes swept into the bottom-right corner to put Mallorca ahead late in the first half, after Kylian Mbappe passed up a couple of big chances to put Madrid in front.
Alvaro Arbeloa introduced Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham from the bench as Madrid grew desperate in the second half, and it got level via Eder Militao's 88th-minute header.
Los Blancos looked the more likely victors at that moment, but they were dealt a hammer blow when Muriqi lashed home in the first of five additional minutes.
There was a suspicion of offside as Mbappe burst on to Alvaro Carreras's pass for Madrid's first major opportunity, but regardless, he was unable to beat Leo Roman when one-on-one.
A near-identical move resulted in Roman turning Mbappe's curler past his left post in the 25th minute, while Morlanes was guilty of a glaring miss at the other end, misjudging his jump and heading over from close range when totally unmarked.
But Mallorca's number eight atoned in the 41st minute, as he brilliantly took Pablo Maffeo's delivery in his stride before wrong-footing Andriy Lunin with a composed finish.
Roman's duel with Mbappe continued after half-time as the Mallorca goalkeeper made a good save with his feet, but he was finally beaten by Militao, who diverted Trent Alexander-Arnold's set-piece delivery into the right-hand corner.
However, there was one final twist to come as substitute Mateo Joseph picked out Muriqi to his right, and the Kosovo international fired a terrific finish across Lunin.
Arbeloa knows just how damaging the defeat could prove in the coming weeks.
"It's clear that it is more difficult now [to win the title] than it was before the start of the game," he said.
"We have eight games left and our objective is to win them all. We have to play at a higher level than today. It's more difficult, the distance tonight could be even greater.
"We found Mallorca in a good moment for them. We didn't have enough patience or create one-on-one situations. We lacked chances, and the first half was better than the second.
"The players must understand that without going to 200 per cent, we are not going to win. This is the top level, and we paid the price."
Excluding last summer's FIFA Club World Cup, Madrid has lost 10 matches across all competitions this season having played 46 matches.
While Madrid was left to rue a dispiriting result, Muriqi was in tears after his winning goal, which came after a tough couple of weeks.
The striker missed a late penalty in a 2-1 defeat to Elche prior to the international break, then failed to lead Kosovo to the 2026 FIFA World Cup as it was beaten 1-0 by Turkiye in a play-off.
"I'm human, emotions sometimes take over me," he said.
"I came from missing a penalty in the 92nd minute and losing a point, with my country, we missed the opportunity to go to the [FIFA] World Cup, which was the dream of my life.
"Then, suddenly, I score this great goal to win. We got the victory, thank you very much to the fans. I hope we can stay in LaLiga. I'm proud, we did a good job against the best team in the world."
