Real Madrid held to draw by Mallorca in Kylian Mbappé’s La Liga debut

(CNN) — Defending Spanish champion Real Madrid had to settle for a 1-1 draw against Mallorca in its La Liga season opener.

In Kylian Mbappé’s league debut, Real survived a sluggish start to take the lead through Rodrygo’s wonderful, curled effort after 13 minutes, latching onto Vinícius Jr.’s backheel.

But Vedat Muriqi’s thumping header from Dani Rodríguez’s corner leveled the score seven minutes into the second half.

Both sides had chances to win the match in the closing stages, but neither was able to find the crucial winning goal.

Real defender Ferland Mendy was then shown a straight red card in stoppage time for a late lunge on Muriqi as he attempted to stop a Mallorca counterattack.

“I was happy with some of the draws last season, but not today because we could have done a lot better,” manager Carlo Ancelotti said after the match. “I don’t want to make excuses for anything, but we just need to do better and with a better attitude. We can learn a lot from this match. It’s quite clear where our problems could come from.

“We struggled defensively, we struggled to win the ball back and to press after losing the ball. We have to improve on that. When we talk about the defensive performance, we’re talking above all about attitude and collective commitment.

“When we regain the ball, we all have to think about it as a team. It’s a problem for the forwards and the defense. It’s a team problem, and in this match, they didn’t understand that this was a very important factor. Mallorca played very well defensively, better than us. I think the draw is a fair result.”

After scoring in his club debut in Real’s 2-0 UEFA Super Cup win over Atalanta last week, Mbappé was largely quiet on Sunday.

The French superstar, who joined Los Blancos on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain this summer, had an effort in the second half that was kept out by the legs of goalkeeper Dominik Greif, though Rodrygo should have put away the rebound.

Elsewhere, Real’s bitter rival Barcelona kicked off its La Liga season with a 2-1 win away at Valencia.

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