Real Madrid rally to beat Mallorca 2-1 and stay perfect in La Liga

Real Madrid rallied from an early deficit to beat Mallorca 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu on Saturday, securing a third straight LaLiga win under coach Xabi Alonso and leaving the hosts unbeaten heading into the international break. Vedat Muriqi put the visitors ahead in the 18th minute, but Arda Güler and Vinícius Júnior struck inside the final three minutes of the first half to turn the game around.

Mallorca stunned the Bernabéu when Muriqi muscled past Dean Huijsen to meet Pablo Torre’s corner and divert the ball into the net with his shoulder, giving the visitors a surprising lead. Real Madrid responded before halftime after Álvaro Carreras’ cross found Huijsen, whose header into the six yard box allowed Güler to nod home on 37 minutes. Vinícius then raced onto a loose ball from midfield and curled a low finish into the bottom corner 68 seconds later to complete the turnaround.

The result was not without controversy. Madrid had three goals ruled out by VAR: two for offside on Kylian Mbappé and one for handball on Güler in the second half. The offside calls were described by broadcasters as marginal, and Mbappé later posted a freeze frame of one disallowed strike on social...