Real Madrid dropped points in LaLiga with a defeat at Mallorca as the team from the Balearic Islands walked away with a 1-0 win courtesy of an own goal from Nacho Fernández.
It ends a five-match unbeaten streak, though this was the first time since May 2022 that Los Blancos have lost and failed to score in the same game.
Here are three stats that help to understand the game.
10: Fouls on Vinícius, a career high
Most people saw this coming so it was no surprise to see the tension of the build-up to this game spill onto the field, in particular surrounding Vinícius Júnior.
The Brazilian suffered 10 fouls across the 90 minutes, three more than what was his career-high of seven. It was a physical battle which saw Mallorca press all of Vinícius’ buttons, and he rose to the occasion and continued to take on Mallorca, registering six dribbles.
His opponent Pablo Maffeo was booked in the 86th minute, but didn’t hold back from the battle, making a crying gesture at the Brazilian as Real Madrid attacked in the following move.
In total, Mallorca recorded a new high for fouls by a single team in a LaLiga match this season with 29. They collected four yellow cards across that, compared to five yellow cards for Real Madrid with just 14 fouls.
However, Vinícius was certainly no saint either. He himself committed five fouls, the highest number of any Real Madrid player and the second-highest figure for the match. That’s in addition to Vinícius riding his luck at half-time, as he rushed towards referee Alejandro Hernández Hernández to continue to complain about his yellow card.
0.082: xG per shot, with only 1 shot from open-play with a higher xG than the season average
Real Madrid failed to score in two of their last three games, having previously scored in every match this season, as they drew a blank up against Mallorca.
It came in part thanks to the fact that the chances created were of low quality with only one shot registering a higher xG than their season average.
The season average is 0.127, and only one chance in open play was taken with a higher value, as Rodrygo’s shot on 15 minutes dragged wide of the post from eight yards out registered 0.13 xG.
Beyond Asensio’s missed penalty, Real Madrid failed to register a single shot on target. Even in spite of throwing on Mariano Díaz as a target man and pushing Antonio Rüdiger up to the attack, it was not enough.
It reflected the fact that Real Madrid could not break down the Mallorca defence. Of the 19 shots taken, 12 came from outside the box with seven of them almost forming a line in a similar position to where Mallorca’s low block would sit.
63%: Real Madrid’s penalty conversion rate in LaLiga this season
Marco Asensio has joined the unwanted club of players to miss a penalty for Real Madrid this season, whose conversion rate at LaLiga sits at 63% with five scored and three missed, some distance off Real Madrid’s all-time record with an 85% conversion rate in the competition.
The miss of the shot which was saved by Mallorca goalkeeper Predrag Rajković, takes Real Madrid’s tally to seven penalties missed in 36 games after a run of 115 LaLiga matches without missing a penalty between 2018 and 2022.
Part of the reason behind that may well be down to the diversity of takers. Marco Asensio stepped up to take this one and became the fifth penalty-taker this season, joining Karim Benzema, Rodrygo Goes, Luka Modrić and Eden Hazard.
Not since 2010/11 have Real Madrid had so many penalty-takers, when Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká, Sergio Ramos, Karim Benzema and Emmanuel Adebayor all had a shot from 12 yards. The last time there were five different penalty-takers in LaLiga, it was 2005/06 with Zinedine Zidane, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo Nazario, Robinho and Júlio Baptista.