After destroying Girona 4-0 the previous week in what should have been a devastating setback to their title aspirations, Real Madrid made a costly error in the Rayo Vallecano draw.
Raul de Tomas’ penalty saved Joselu’s early goal against lowly local rival Rayo Vallecano on Sunday, holding La Liga leaders Real Madrid to a painful 1-1 draw. This outcome could add some drama to the title fight between Girona and surprise player Real Madrid.
Girona’s title prospects appeared to be severely damaged after Real Madrid thrashed them 4-0 at Vallecas last week, but the Catalan upstarts may be drawing closer once more as a result of Real Madrid’s careless play.
After the draw, Carlo Ancelotti’s team now has 62 points, six more than Girona, who are in second position and have a game against Athletic Bilbao on Monday. With 54 points, Barca is a distant third, three points ahead of Atletico Madrid in fourth place.
Moving forward Real Madrid took advantage of a squandered chance by Rayo striker Raul de Tomas to launch a swift counterattack, which was finished by Joselu.
Joselu simply needed to touch the low cross from Brahim Diaz into the empty net after the Spanish forward was left unmarked on the right side and received a fantastic long pass from Diaz into Federico Valverde’s stride.
The linesman first flagged Joselu’s first-time shot from inside the area as offside, but VAR swiftly overturned the ruling since the Spanish attacker was unquestionably onside.
Real controlled the game for up to 65% of the time, but they were wasteful and let the locals equalize by a penalty kick from De Tomas in the 27th minute after midfielder Eduardo Camavinga was flagged for a handball by the VAR.
The fans at the Vallecas stadium erupted in cheers upon the team’s equalizer, sending them into a frenzy of excitement as they moved up to 16th place, eight points above the relegation zone.
Real Madrid dominated the second half despite squandering numerous opportunities due to injury to England midfielder Jude Bellingham.
The closest it came was in the 80th minute when Stole Dimitrievski wonderfully stopped a Toni Kroos free kick from the edge of the box. The ball was curving towards the upper left corner, but Dimitrievski sprang to push the ball round the post.
Following Dani Carvajal’s two yellow cards in two minutes as a 75th-minute substitute, the irate guest was reduced to 10 men in additional time.
