Mbappe late penalty rescue Madrid in win over Rayo

Kylian Mbappe stayed calm to roll home a 100th-minute penalty and claim Real Madrid a 2-1 win over nine-man Rayo Vallecano on Sunday in a spicy La Liga derby clash.

Los Blancos cut Barcelona’s lead back to one point at the top of the table after the Spanish champions beat Elche on Saturday.

Vinicius Junior scored early on for Madrid after Jude Bellingham limped off with a hamstring injury which is expected to keep him out for around a month.

Jorge de Frutos pulled Rayo level early in the second half as Madrid fans showed their anger at their team following the midweek Champions League defeat at Benfica.

After Pathe Ciss’s red card tilted the game in Madrid’s favour, Mbappe netted from the spot at the death for his 22nd La Liga goal this season.

Pep Chavarria was also sent off in the final stages for Rayo, 17th, who took a shaky Madrid to the wire before falling short.

Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa said it would take time before the team could become more consistent, having had six games at the helm since replacing Xabi Alonso.

“I’m not Gandalf the White,” the Madrid coach told reporters, referring to the fictional wizard from the Lord of the Rings.

“What I want from my players is what I’m seeing, commitment, attitude, mentality, knowing that to win each game quality is not enough, consistency is key… we will work on that.”

Arbeloa said Madrid had to play better than other teams to beat opponents, because of their illustrious name.

“This is Real Madrid, and to beat Rayo Vallecano we need to do more than the rest of the teams in La Liga,” he continued.

The coach said Bellingham would be a “big absence” for the matches ahead after he limped off early, incuding the Champions League play-off games against Jose Mourinho’s Benfica — again.

After the defeat in Portugal stopped Madrid reaching the last 16 directly, the Santiago Bernabeu crowd was in unforgiving mood and whistled their own players, despite appeals from Arbeloa and Mbappe ahead of the game.

Vinicius, who was targeted, fired the hosts ahead in the 15th minute with a fine individual goal.

Los Blancos were in charge but despite taking the lead, their fans were not appeased, and whistled the team in at the break.

Things got worse when four minutes into the second half Rayo pulled level through De Frutos.

The visitors should have taken the lead after an hour when Andrei Ratiu ran through on goal but Thibaut Courtois denied him superbly, while Mbappe hit the crossbar at the other end.

Elsewhere Athletic Bilbao struck late to secure a 1-1 Basque derby draw against Real Sociedad and Real Betis rose to fifth with a 2-1 win at Valencia.