Mbappé: Last-Minute Rescue for Real Madrid

As they did two weeks ago against Levante also at lunchtime, the Santiago Bernabéu once again cried out against their players. The whistles had an effect on Vinicius, who reacted with the necessary courage, scored a great goal and tried in every way, but they did not serve to amend his teammates, who once again fell into disarray, allowing Rayo to tie through De Frutos and only coming out successful at the last minute with a penalty converted by Bondy’s star that granted them an essential victory to continue in the fight, but that does not calm the storm.

Arbeloa repeated the eleven that worked for him against Monaco, again with Valverde and Camavinga acting as orthopedic full-backs. The Frenchman sat Carreras, the only piece that fell out of the lineup compared to the one that crashed against Benfica. The chosen ones received a whistle at the beginning of the clash, although with fewer decibels than against Levante. At the head of those named was, once again, Vinicius, who this time reacted to the wind music by haranguing the masses.

The gesture of rebellion from the Fluminense, who ended up seeing a yellow card that will prevent him from playing next week against Valencia at Mestalla, accompanied a nebulous corkage from Real Madrid, who saw how their hardships worsened with an early injury to Bellingham. The Englishman forced in search of a ball that was lost over the baseline and put his hand on his left femoral biceps. Brahim came in, leaving Real Madrid with two featherweights as insiders: the man from Malaga and Arda Güler.

It didn’t hurt because both were key in the action that improved the spirit of the Merengue parish. The Turk stole, the international with Morocco accelerated and Vinicius finished by hitting the squad with his right foot after cutting in front of Ratiu. Unlike what happened against Monaco, the ‘7’ did celebrate the goal this time with the stands, with a kiss on the shield.

The second immediately escaped Vinicius after a pass by Arda Güler on the right that compromised Batalla. The Brazilian, fired up, infected his teammates, who threatened to apply pressure and retreat. A sprint by Valverde to stop a Rayo counterattack even aroused applause from the audience. It was barely a respite because Real Madrid wasted a few neat minutes without showing its fang again, allowed Rayo to prowl Courtois’s lair and ended up earning a new fight at half-time with its parsimony.

Headless

The passage through the locker room left another fallen in combat, Asencio, whose tibia ailment left Ceballos in the engine room and forced Tchouaméni to be relocated as center back. Once again, as happened against Monaco, Real Madrid’s defense was invaded by three midfielders along with a single cradle defender, Huijsen. And it dissolved like sugar right away. Gumbau filtered in from the right, Álvaro García beat Valverde and headed De Frutos, who applied the former’s law to tie the score and unleash another shower of whistles from the stands.

The new insult only seemed to strike a chord with Vinicius, who threatened head-on while Rayo smelled blood and was about to dig into the wound again with a counter from Ratiu, who was only surpassed by Gonzalo while his teammates watched from a distance as Courtois aborted the Romanian’s attack.

The Bernabéu’s impatience grew as it watched another tragedy unfold. Mbappé didn’t even offer him consolation this time, as he crashed a shot into an empty goal against the crossbar after getting around Batalla. Real Madrid was only able to attack spasmodically against a Rayo team with much more ground in the center of the field until those on the fringe were left with one less. The expulsion of Pathé Ciss gave oxygen to Real Madrid, who launched themselves desperately in search of victory, caressed it with a header from Camavinga who died on the woodwork and ended up finding it from eleven meters to prevent their penalty from being maximum.