Mallorca wins 1-0. Real Madrid: An own goal by Nacho condemns the defending champions to defeat as they lose ground on Barcelona in the title race... with Marco Asensio missing a penalty for Carlo Ancelotti's side.

 

Real Mallorca won 1-0. Real Madrid: An own goal by Nacho condemns the defending champions to a shock defeat as they lose ground on Barcelona in the title race, with Marco Asensio missing a penalty for Carlo Ancelotti's team.

Madrid trails rivals by five points. Barcelona has played one more game.

A tenacious Mallorca side maintained their lead over the European champions until Asensio's missed penalty compounded Carlo Ancelotti's misery in the second half.

Real Madrid suffered a 1-0 defeat away at Mallorca just two weeks before facing Liverpool in the Champions League.

The loss hurts their chances of catching leaders Barcelona, but there was more bad news: Thibaut Courtois will miss the game after injuring his abductor muscle in warm-up.

They were already missing Eder Militao and Karim Benzema, and it was Militao's replacement Nacho who scored the game's only goal, an own-goal past stand-in keeper Andriy Lunin.

Madrid won a penalty kick in the second half, but without Benzema on the field, Marco Asensio stepped forward to take the kick, but his shot was saved.

Nacho headed past stand-in keeper Andriy Lunin on 13 minutes to give Mallorca the lead. Vedat Muriqi flicked the ball on to Dani Rodriguez after Pedrag Rajkovic kicked long. He advanced down the left, and when the ball was lost and then returned to him, he tried to spot Muriqi, who had arrived in the penalty area by this point.

Nacho (left) scored an own goal in the first half as Real Madrid lost to Mallorca.

Thibaut Courtois, the game's goalkeeper, was injured during the warm-up.

The big Kosovo striker is so good in the air that it appeared that his clever back header had looped over Lunin, but the response revealed that it was his marker Nacho who got the touch that fooled the keeper.

Madrid worked hard to get back into the game, but there was some bad blood between these two teams from previous meetings, and Madrid seemed to want to make a scrap of it, which suited robust Mallorca perfectly.

Match FACTS

Mallorca's starting eleven are Rajkovic, Maffeo, Gonzalez, Raillo, Nastasic, Costa, Rodriguez (Ndiaye 68), Baba (Battaglia 78), Ruiz, Lee (Sanchez 78), and Muriqi.

Greif, Roman, Hadzoladunic, Augustinsson, Grenier, Morlanes, Kadewere, Prats, and Rodriguez were not used as substitutes.

Costa, Ndiaye, Ruiz, and Maffeo have all been booked.

Real Madrid: Lunin, Carvajal, Rudiger, Nacho, Camavinga, Valverde (Modric 64), Ceballos (Alaba 71), Tchoumeni (Kroos 71), Vinicius, Rodrygo, Asensio, Vinicius, Rodrygo, Asensio, Asensio, Asensio, Asensio, Asensio (Diaz 71).

Lopez, Courtois, Odriozola, and Vallejo were not used as substitutes.

Valverde, Ceballos, and Vinicius have all been booked.

At the restart, Carlo Ancelotti was seen conversing with referee Alejandro Hernandez, indicating with his fingers how home side fouls had gone unpunished.

Madrid, on the other hand, had given as good as they got with strong challenges on Pablo Maffeo from Eduardo Camavinga and Aureliano Tchouameni. Maffeo, who had previously scythed down Vinicius, was marking the Brazilian and kept him quiet in the first half, with the frustrated forward booked and now set to miss Real Madrid's next game.

Vinicius was fouled by Mallorca goalkeeper Rajkovic in the second period, and Madrid appeared to be regaining control of the game. With Benzema out, Mallorca-born Marco Asensio stepped up, but Rajkovic dived correctly and saved the spot kick.

Things were getting desperate now, and it was up to Luka Modric to try to right the ship, with Ancelotti turning to his bench. Mariano Diaz, who has not started a game since last May, had a chance. He hasn't scored since, and that streak has continued as Madrid failed to break through a defence that had won their previous three home games 1-0.

There was more bad blood as Mallorca ran out the clock, with Ancelotti yelling at Maffeo after another clash with Vinicius. The afternoon had been frustrating, and there was no late touch of class to salvage a point - Modric's cross was headed wide by Mariano. Rudiger also squandered a late opportunity from Toni Kroos' cross.

Madrid will now travel to Morocco to compete in the World Club Cup. Both a Champions League match against Liverpool and a cup semi-final against Barcelona are now on the horizon, not to mention the title-saving operation.

Ancelotti will be hoping that Courtois' injury doesn't keep him out too long, and that Benzema and Militao return before more points slip away in La Liga.

Several incidents in the game frustrated Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti (centre).

Mallorca kept up their good form at home, climbing to tenth place in La Liga.