Real Madrid suffer shock defeat to Mallorca and lose La Liga lead to bitter rivals Barcelona
EVERYTHING seemed to be going right at Real Madrid – but things are never so simple at the biggest club in the world.
Catastrophe is never far around the corner when expectations are so high and this team has become so adept at finding it, as proven again by Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Mallorca.
A trip to the Balearic Islanders, rooted in the relegation zone before kick-off, was a potential banana skin but Real were unbeaten in La Liga and hadn’t succumbed at Son Moix in 13 years.
Former Everton tough guy Thomas Gravesen played, and of course got booked, in that 2006 defeat and tonight there was a similar impostor vibe about Alvaro Odriozola.
The £35million right-back, 23, was beaten all ends up by Lago Junior for Mallorca’s seventh-minute winner.
Fast forward to 75 minutes – exactly the sort of time Real usually bag the equaliser to commence an inevitable comeback – and he committed another deadly sin.
Sent off for a second yellow card, the Spaniard left Zinedine Zidane in the lurch with meagre options on the bench to help drag his side back to the La Liga summit.
Mallorca fought valiantly and held off their opponents, charged with sheer joie de vivre.
That sentiment can rarely be applied to Los Blancos. Odriozola was bad but he was not alone, as this was not Luka Jovic’s, Vinicius’ or an increasingly underperforming Thibaut Courtois’ night either.
Granted, Eden Hazard, Gareth Bale and Luka Modric were all absent for Real but the club will now be compelled to fall back into crisis mode.
Struggling in Europe and now second to a Barcelona side that suffered their worst start in 25 years, the waters really are never calm for long at the Bernabeu.
