Kylian Mbappé stayed calm to roll home a 100th-minute penalty and secure for Real Madrid a 2-1 win over nine-man Rayo Vallecano on Sunday in a spicy La Liga derby. Los Blancos’ victory cut Barcelona’s lead back to one point at the top of the table after the Spanish champions beat Elche on Saturday.
Vinícius Júnior scored early on for Madrid after Jude Bellingham limped off with an apparent hamstring injury. Jorge de Frutos pulled Rayo level early in the second half, prompting visible anger from the Madrid fans at their team. Frustration was averted when Mbappé netted from the spot following Pathé Ciss’s red card at the death.
Rayo also had Pep Chavarría sent off before the final whistle.
Madrid’s interim head coach, Álvaro Arbeloa, and Mbappé had begged fans to support the team after Real’s defeat at Benfica in midweek, but the Santiago Bernabéu crowd was in unforgiving mood.
The former Barcelona winger Ilias Akhomach fired narrowly wide early on – the atmosphere would have been further soured had his effort crept inside Thibaut Courtois’ post.
Madrid suffered an early setback as the England international Bellingham pulled up holding the back of his thigh, going off in agony. The club later confirmed that the midfielder is likely to be out for up to month.
Vinícius put the hosts ahead in the 15th minute, showing tidy footwork just inside the area before firing high over Augusto Batalla and into the net. Los Blancos were in charge but, despite taking the lead, their fans were not content and whistled the team in at the break.
They were even less impressed, minutes into the second half, when Rayo pulled level. Álvaro García nodded a cross down for De Frutos, a former Madrid youth player, to reach and drill home.
The visitors should have taken the lead after an hour when Andrei Ratiu ran through on goal with only Courtois to beat but the Belgian keeper made a superb save to deny him.
Mbappé came centimetres away from putting Madrid in front when Batalla rushed out of his goal, with the French forward knocking the ball around him but then hitting the bar from distance.
Rayo made life harder for themselves when the midfielder Ciss was sent off for an ugly foul on Madrid’s Dani Ceballos. Eduardo Camavinga headed against a post as Arbeloa’s side turned the screw, before nine minutes of stoppage time were added on.
With the clock ticking down, Madrid were awarded a penalty when Nobel Mendy clumsily fouled Brahim Díaz, and La Liga’s top scorer, Mbappé, dispatched it to snatch three points for his side. Rayo finished the match with nine men after Chavarría was shown a second yellow card for shoving Rodrygo.
Serhou Guirassy scored twice in the second half as Borussia Dortmund came from behind to beat the Bundesliga’s bottom club, Heidenheim, 3-2 on Sunday and move six points behind the leaders, Bayern Munich.
Waldemar Anton put the nervy hosts in front but Julian Niehues scored either side of half-time to give Heidenheim the lead.
Guirassy had scored only one Bundesliga goal in 10 games since October but grabbed two in the space of two minutes to put Dortmund back in front. Guirassy missed a late penalty but Dortmund, who were 11 points behind Bayern at Christmas, held on to drag themselves back into the title race.
Inter extended their lead at the top of Serie A to eight points with Sunday’s 2-0 win at Cremonese, a match that was marred by away fans nearly hitting the hosts’ goalkeeper Emil Audero with a firecracker.
Lautaro Martínez and Piotr Zielinski’s first-half goals were enough for Inter to extend their unbeaten league run to 11 matches and pile pressure on their nearest challengers, Milan, who face Bologna on Tuesday.
Audero fell to the turf following the arrival of the firecracker from among the Inter fans massed behind his goal. Fortunately a stunned Audero had only suffered minor injuries to his leg and was able to continue, and the match finished without further incident.
Gleison Bremer helped Juventus up to fourth, the Brazilian international defender scoring twice in a comfortable 4-1 win at Parma as the Turin club continued their revival under Luciano Spalletti.
Bremer put Juve ahead in the 15th minute and poked home the away team’s third from close range eight minutes after the break, shortly after Andrea Cambiaso put Parma back in the game by flicking an innocuous cross into his own goal.
Weston McKennie and Jonathan David scored the other goals as Juve, who look like a totally different team to the one coached by Spalletti’s predecessor, Igor Tudor, went two points above Roma, who face Udinese on Monday night.
Como are sixth on 41 points, four behind Juve after Nico Paz wasted a last-gasp penalty in a goalless draw with Atalanta, who sit seventh.
Como would have moved above Roma on goal difference had Paz scored from the spot in the eighth minute of added time after Giorgio Scalvini’s handball. But Marco Carnesecchi pulled off a brilliant save to deny Paz and earn 10-man Atalanta, who had Honest Ahanor sent off in the eighth minute, a hard-earned point.
In France Nuno Mendes scored a late winner as Paris Saint-Germain survived the second-half sending-off of Achraf Hakimi to beat Strasbourg 2-1 and reclaim top spot in Ligue 1.
A dramatic game in Alsace saw PSG’s goalkeeper Matvey Safonov save Joaquín Panichelli’s early penalty for Strasbourg, before youngster Senny Mayulu gave the visitors the lead.
Guéla Doué, elder brother of PSG’s Desiré, levelled for the home side before the half-hour mark, but the Portugal left-back Mendes headed in the winner for the reigning French and European champions in the 81st minute.
Luis Enrique’s team had been reduced to 10 men on 74 minutes as Hakimi was sent off for a high tackle on Panichelli – he was initially shown a yellow card only for the punishment to be upgraded to red after a VAR check.
For Strasbourg, the defeat was their first in four matches under new English coach Gary O’Neil, appointed last month after Liam Rosenior left for Chelsea.
