Madrid, March 10: Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior scored goals in a five-minute span in the first half and Real Madrid held on to beat Rayo Vallecano 2-1 and move level on points with Barcelona at the top of the Spanish league.
Mbappé scored in the 30th minute on Sunday and Vinícius doubled the lead in the 34th to give Madrid the same 57 points as Barcelona, which had its match against Osasuna on Saturday postponed after the death of first-team doctor Carles Miñarro Garcia.
There was a moment of silence at Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in honor of the Barcelona doctor.
Barcelona remains ahead of Madrid on the head-to-head tiebreaker.
“It’s a nice feeling because the goal was to get the three points,” Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said.
“We could have been up 3-0 in the first half but it ended 2-1. And in the second half we had opportunities to go up 3-1.” Rayo hit back with a goal from Pedro Díaz in first-half stoppage time. It hasn’t won in four straight league matches, with three losses and a draw.
Ancelotti rotated his squad ahead of Wednesday’s match at Atletico Madrid in the round of 16 of the Champions League. Madrid won the first match 2-1.
Ancelotti substituted both Mbappé and Rodrygo on Sunday.
“I had no problem replacing the forwards,” he said.
“We needed to defend toward the end of the match.”
Atletico falters
Atletico wasted a chance to retake the league lead after conceding two late goals in a 2-1 loss at Getafe.
Diego Simeone’s team scored first with a penalty kick converted by Alexander Sorloth in the 75th, but it couldn’t hold on to the lead after Ángel Correa was sent off with a straight red card for a hard foul.
Midfielder Mauro Arambarri equalised for the hosts in the 88th and scored the winner two minutes into stoppage time.
Correa was initially shown a yellow card but video review changed it to a red card. The forward was seen insulting the referee after being sent off and later apologized on social media.
Atletico is one point behind Madrid and Barcelona.
Other results
Fourth-placed Athletic Bilbao was frustrated by a 1-1 home draw with Mallorca.
Antonio Raíllo put the visitors ahead in the 56th and Nico Williams equalised a couple of minutes later.
Sixth-placed Real Betis defeated 10-man Las Palmas 1-0 with a 65th-minute goal from Diego Llorente. The visitors played a man down after Dário Essugo was sent off in the 61st.
Sevilla won 1-0 at Real Sociedad thanks to a 46th-minute goal by Chidera Ejuke in a match between midtable clubs.
Sociedad hasn’t won in four matches in all competitions. Sevilla had lost two in a row.
With the title race heating up, Real Madrid’s hard-fought win keeps them level with Barcelona at the summit of La Liga, setting up an intense battle for the top spot. (AP)
