Espanyol stuns Madrid to shake up LaLiga race
Real Madrid's lead at the top of LaLiga was cut to just one point after an astonishing 1-0 deafet to lowly Espanyol at RCDE Stadium.
Carlos Romero scored the winner for the hosts in the 85th minute, and while Madrid and its followers felt he should have been sent off earlier for a foul on Kylian Mbappe, in truth Los Blancos only had themselves to blame for the result in the end.
Atletico Madrid's earlier 2-0 win over Real Mallorca had seen Diego Simeone's side close the gap to the league leader to a single point, and Carlo Ancelotti's side was unable to restore the cushion it had before after a frustrating night in Barcelona.
It sets up next weekend's Madrid Derby perfectly, though, as an epic fight for top spot at Santiago Bernabeu.
Espanyol started the game in the bottom three, and looked set to stay there when Vinicius Junior put the ball into the back of the net in the 21st minute.
But as the Brazilian wheeled away to celebrate, the referee called play back for a foul committed by Kylian Mbappe on Pol Lozano in the build-up.
A first half dominated by Madrid ended goalless, but it was Romero who had the earliest opportunity in the second half, but blasted over Thibaut Courtois's goal.
Minutes later, Jude Bellingham forced Joan Garcia into a sharp save with a powerful shot from the edge of the box, and while the rebound fell kindly for Mbappe, Garcia was able to scramble and put the Frenchman's follow-up on to the post with his fingertips before the ball was cleared away from danger.
As the match approached the hour mark, Madrid broke from an Espanyol corner through Mbappe, but he was felled by Romero at full speed, although played went on to allow Vinicius an opportunity inside the box which he was unable to take..
While Madrid felt Romero's challenge on Mbappe was worthy of a red card, the Espanyol man received only a yellow, which would prove crucial late in the game.
Garcia made two more sensational saves from Rodrygo and Mbappe respectively as it seemed Espanyol was happy to sit back and settle for a point. But out of nowhere, the hosts went on to win through a sensational counter-attack of their own.
With the clock ticking into the 85th minute, Luka Modric sent a free-kick into the box, which was cleared back in his direction, but Antoniu Roca beat him to the ball and set off towards Madrid's goal at pace.
The ball was calmy distributed out to Omar El Hilali eventually, and he lobbed a perfect cross over the defence for Romero to fire past Courtois on the volley as a deafening roar went up around the stadium.
While Madrid remains top of the table on 49 points, its current position hinges on the result of next week's match with Atletico, which is only a point behind on 48 and will go top again should it win at Santiago Bernabeu.
For Espanyol it is now out of the bottom three thanks to Romero's winner and Garcia's heroics in goal, where he made seven outstanding saves to claim a deserved man of the match award.
