A winter champion clinging to his blackboard

The whites, hungover after the Christmas break, fell into Vasco Aguirre's trap for more than an hour, whose men managed to crash two shots against the woodwork that could well have changed the outcome of the match. But when the hosts suffered an unexpected setback at the Santiago Bernabéu, Modric's silky right boot and Rüdiger's imperial head came to the rescue to keep their team's leadership safe with the same formula he used in Mendizorroza in order to eating the grapes setting the pace in the League: shielding of the goal and great effectiveness from set pieces of the team that has scored the most goals in the championship from a corner, seven.

Real Madrid had between one eyebrow and one eyebrow – never better said in the case of Carletto's team – to obtain the symbolic laurel of winter champion, but not even this objective served as an incentive to overcome that traditional laziness in the corkscrews of the year on the side of the Italian coach who cost him many troubles in the past. He had stumbled in three of the four league appearances immediately after eating the nougat that he made with the Reggiolo player as helmsman and he almost slipped again precisely the day Vinicius returned to action, once again the protagonist for the good and the bad. against a Mallorca that has a good understanding of him.

Riding the crest of the wave after going six games without losing between the League and the Cup, the Balearic squad appeared at the Bernabéu with a clear battle plan based on a reinforced concrete defensive platoon and Larin as a pigeon man in search of a counterattack. Real Madrid had no choice but to arm themselves with patience in the face of the disposition of the enemy lines, overcrowded in the rear and squalid in the vanguard.

Breaking through on such a front required maximum skill and a lot of persistence. Vinicius, a professor in both facets, took on the challenge with delight, first with a cross shot that went slightly wide after a brilliant delivery from Modric and then with a solo mischief followed by a superb whip from the edge of the box that required a phenomenal response from Rajkovic . However, the best chance of the first half fell to Mallorca, who crashed a header from Antonio Sánchez against the crossbar in one of the few solid finishes from the vermillions before the interlude.

The Basque trap

By then, the visitors had managed to take the fight to their own territory, unhinging with their tough spirit a Real Madrid that fell into the trap by accepting the invitation to the fight that Aguirre's team was processing to get Vinicius out of his mind, with Maffeo and Raíllo again plotting the trap for the Fluminense to the complacency of Muñiz Ruiz.

The script did not change after returning from the locker room, with Real Madrid subdued in a fast-paced duel and Mallorca on fire. Samú Costa was able to fish in a troubled river with a blow from outside the area that kissed the stem of the stick. The wood, once again, came to the aid of the locals, very thick in the middle of the vermilion forest. The soporific image of his team motivated the intervention of Ancelotti, who retired Vinicius, short of rhythm, to give free rein to Brahim's elf, and gave up shortly after Kroos's beat in search of Joselu's pole.

It was then time for Mallorca to miraculously survive a seemingly impossible occasion in which Rajkovic acted as a shield against a bowed shot from Rodrygo and the post immediately spit out a header into an empty goal by Brahim when the local parish was already claiming a goal. that I took for granted.

The double opportunity inflamed a Real Madrid that usually grows when the clock is ticking. More dynamic with Brahim striking on the right side, Rodrygo looking for the turns to Maffeo on the left sector and Bellingham threatening with his proverbial arrival from the second line, Ancelotti's team, clueless until then, boxed Mallorca, mounted the combat riot and He ended up destroying his opponent with a corner taken by a superb Modric and culminated by a lethal Rüdiger. As against Alavés, a blow from a set piece was enough to prevent Real Madrid from suffering another nightmare after Christmas.