Kylian Mbappe stayed calm to roll home a 100th-minute penalty and claim a 2-1 win for Real Madrid over nine-man Rayo Vallecano on Sunday in a spicy La Liga derby clash.
Los Blancos cut Barcelona’s lead back to one point at the top of the table after the Spanish champions beat Elche on Saturday.
Vinicius Junior 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 as Madrid fans showed their anger at their team following the midweek Champions League defeat at Benfica.
After Pathe Ciss’s red card tilted the game in Madrid’s favour, Mbappe netted from the spot at the death for his 22nd La Liga goal this season.
Pep Chavarria was also sent off in the final stages for Rayo, 17th, who took a shaky Madrid to the wire before falling short.
Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa said it would take time before the team could become more consistent, having had six games at the helm since replacing Xabi Alonso.
“I’m not Gandalf the White,” the Madrid coach told reporters, referring to the Lord of the Rings wizard.
“What I want from my players is what I’m seeing: commitment, attitude, mentality, knowing that to win each game, quality is not enough, consistency is key.
“We will work on that, in terms of performance, mentality, ambition and attitude.”
Arbeloa said Madrid had to play better than other teams to beat opponents, because of their illustrious name.
“This is Real Madrid, and to beat Rayo Vallecano we need to do more than the rest of the teams in La Liga,” he continued.
The coach said Bellingham would be a “big absence” for the matches ahead if his injury proves serious, but for now, “we don’t know anything”.
After the defeat in Portugal left Madrid in the Champions League play-off round, the Santiago Bernabeu crowd was in an unforgiving mood.
Arbeloa and Mbappe had begged fans to support the team, but, just as they did a fortnight ago against Levante, they whistled their own players.
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Madrid suffered an early setback as England international Bellingham pulled up holding the back of his thigh, going off in agony.
Vinicius fired 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 appeased and whistled the team in at the break.
Four minutes into the second half, Rayo pulled level. Alvaro Garcia 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 Thibaut Courtois to beat, but the Belgian stopper made a superb save to deny him.
Mbappe came centimetres away from putting Madrid in front when Batalla rushed out of his goal, but hit the bar.
Rayo made life harder for themselves when midfielder Ciss was sent off for an ugly foul on Madrid’s Dani Ceballos.
Eduardo Camavinga headed against the post as Arbeloa’s side turned the screw.
With nine minutes of stoppage time ticking down, Madrid were awarded a penalty when Nobel Mendy clumsily fouled Brahim Diaz, and La Liga’s top scorer Mbappe dispatched it to snatch three points for his side.
Rayo finished the match with nine men after Chavarria was shown a second yellow card for shoving Rodrygo Goes.
“The important thing is to improve, to grow as a team, try to be calmer, we can’t always be waiting for the opponent to make a mistake,” said Madrid midfielder Fede Valverde.
Arbeloa said he was now looking forward to a fortnight without midweek games due to Madrid’s early Copa del Rey exit.
“We’ve had a lot more games than training sessions, which are for recovering and can’t be done at high intensity. As a coach, I’ve missed that time to work,” said the coach.
“We’ll use these two weeks to keep improving the team, individually and collectively.”
