Mallorca became the first La Liga team to force defeat down the throat of Real Madrid and Zinedine Zidane this season as the newly promoted side earned a hard fought 1-0 win at the Iberostar Estadi on Saturday evening.
Junior Lago was the hero as Mallorca recorded a surprising 1-0 triumph over Real Madrid on Match Day 9 in the La Liga Santander.
The league leaders drop precious points at the Son Moix on Saturday night as Mallorca earned a famous 1-0 victory over their more illustrious opponents.
The hosts at kick off sat in 18th position and the relegation zone after a few subdued showings since their return to the topflight.
However, the home side turned up in high spirit for the game against Zinedine Zidane’s men following their vital win at home to Espanyol just before the international break.
Conversely, Madrid had dropped to second on the table, after Barcelona’s earlier 3-0 victory nudged the Catalan side ahead.
Mallorca struck early on when Lago darted inside Ordriozola before firing an unstoppable bending effort beyond Courtois.
It was two goals for the hosts ten minutes later, when their lead was doubled through Rodriguez but VAR came to Los Blancos’ rescue and the Mallorca goal was chalked for offside.
However, Madrid soon recovered and began to exert some pressure but the hosts stood up to a barrage of set-pieces, to take their deserved lead into the second period.
The second half did not bring Los Merengues good tidings still as the visitors found Mallorca incredibly difficult to break down.
To equalize, Madrid needed to create some clearer openings but after hitting shots after shots from distance, their best chance of the half fell to Benzema, who was inches away from rescuing Madrid, after he hit the bar from Rodriguez’s clever pass.
With just over a quarter of an hour left to play, it turned into an alarming game for Zidane and Madrid when Odriozola got sent off for a second yellow card: the right-back threw himself into a dangerous challenge to stop a breakaway, and despite claims that he took the ball, the referee didn’t hesitate to send him off.
With Real down to ten men, the Mallorca fans began to see a surprising result got much closer to becoming reality.
The former European champions hunted desperately for that equalizer but with ten men it was always going to be difficult and could offer no response as Mallorca saw out the victory in relative comfort.
The loss pushes Real Madrid off the top of the table as champions Barcelona take their place at the summit following an impressive 3-0 victory at Eibar earlier in the day.
