Real Madrid earned a dramatic 2-1 win against Rayo Vallecano at the Santiago Bernabéu, after Kylian Mbappé’s 100th-minute penalty made it six straight victories in LaLiga for Los Blancos.
Following their disappointing Champions League outing in midweek, during which Anatoliy Trubin’s last-gasp goal for Benfica left Los Blancos facing a playoff clash against the same opponents, Real will have been desperate to start on the front foot here.
Their efforts at building momentum, though, suffered a setback when Jude Bellingham was in tears as he was forced off with a hamstring injury in the opening stages.
Still, while the visitors had a fantastic opportunity to take the lead inside the opening five minutes when Ilias Akhomach wriggled into some space inside the area before dragging his shot wide, Alvaro Arbeloa’s team were in front by the quarter-hour mark. Vinicius Junior had not scored in LaLiga since October 4th 2025, but he broke his drought in some style here, curling into the top corner from just inside the box.
The rest of the half passed by with limited opportunities, the best of which came from Arda Guler as he forced Augusto Batalla into an important stop from a tight angle. As HT approached, Rayo improved and grew into the game, but their difficulties in front of goal this term – only two sides in the Spanish top flight had scored fewer than their 17 goals prior to kick-off – were underlined by the fact they failed to work Thibaut Courtois before the interval.
Within five minutes of the restart, though, they were back on level terms. A searching ball towards the back post was headed back into the danger area by Alvaro Garcia, and Jorge de Frutos was on hand to sweep past Courtois.
Both sides then had a gilt-edged opportunity apiece to take the lead; first, Real’s goalkeeper produced a crucial one-on-one stop to deny Andrei Rațiu when the visiting right-back led a counter-attack, before Mbappe hit the bar with the goal at his mercy after Batalla was found in no man’s land trying to intercept the pass into the France international.
Real received a significant boost when Pathe Ciss was sent off for a high challenge on Dani Ceballos, who was next to go close when he placed a shot narrowly wide of the post as the match approached its climax.
Eduardo Camavinga then hit the upright with a header, but Real had a golden chance in the 10th minute of stoppage time when a penalty was awarded after Nobel Mendy felled Brahim Diaz. From the spot, Mbappe made no mistake, sending Batalla the wrong way to secure the points.
It was a huge win for Real, who are now back to within one point of LaLiga leaders Barcelona, but to lose in such fashion is a crushing blow for Rayo, who received another red card when Pep Chavarria received a second yellow card for a push on Rodrygo. They are now just one point above the relegation zone and have won only one of their past 12 league games.
