Valverde, Vinicius Jr. lead Real Madrid to 4-1 win over Mallorca

Madrid, Sep 11 (EFE).- Real Madrid notched its fifth win in five matches on Sunday, dealing out a 4-1 drubbing to Mallorca in which Uruguay’s Fede Valverde and Brazil’s Vinicius Junior were – with a goal apiece – the outstanding players in an exciting and well-fought encounter where Rodrygo and Rudiger scored late goals that made the match seem more unbalanced than it actually was.

The first 30 minutes of play gave the 55,000 spectators little in the way of excitement at Santiago Bernabeu stadium, with lukewarm drives mainly down the left side that resulted in a whole lot of nothing. The visitors were able to easily fend off the capital squad’s strikers And then it was Muriqi who got Mallorca on the board first in the 35th minute – sending a tremor of alarm through the crowd – on its first real counterattack of the match after Lee Kang-In’s free kick.

But just before the break Valverde found the twine in stunning fashion – getting the ball 10 meters from the area and driving directly at goaltender Predrag Rajkovic, drawing him out and then sending it past him right into the net – to even things up and let the home team breathe a little easier during the intermission.

After play resumed, Real Madrid picked up its game and it was Rodrygo moving the ball expertly through the visitors’ midfield and then finding fellow Brazilian Vinicius for the go-ahead tally in the 72nd minute.

Carlo Ancelotti put Luka Modric into the mix in the 59th minute, a key decision that further upped the home team’s game and then Rodrygo delivered a fabulous individual effort to score in the 89th minute, for all practical purposes putting the game out of reach.

But, even so, in the last minute of stoppage time Germany’s Antonio Rudiger also scored for the 4-1.

Lineups:

Real Madrid: Courtois; Lucas Vazquez (Carvajal, 71), Rudiger, Alaba, Mendy (Nacho, m.59), Kroos, Fede Valverde, Dani Ceballos (Camavinga, m.68), Rodrygo, Vinicius and Hazard (Modric, m.59).

Mallorca: Rajkovic; Maffeo, Valjent, Raillo, Nastasic, Costa; Galarreta (Grenier, m.59), Battaglia (Baba, m.52), Dani Rodriguez (Sanchez, m.59); Lee Kang In (Abdon Prats, m.78) and Muriqi (Lago Junior, 78).

EFE omb/ism/bp