Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior struck within five minutes of each other in the first half as Real Madrid held on to beat Rayo Vallecano 2-1 on Sunday, moving level on points with Barcelona at the top of La Liga.
Mbappe opened the scoring in the 30th minute, followed by Vinicius' goal in the 34th, putting Madrid on 57 points – equal with Barcelona, whose match against Osasuna was postponed after the tragic death of first-team doctor Carles Minarro Garcia.
A moment of silence was held at Santiago Bernabeu in honor of the Barcelona doctor.
However, Barcelona still leads Madrid on the head-to-head tiebreaker.
“It’s a good feeling because the goal was to get the three points,” said Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti. “We could have been up 3-0 in the first half, but it ended 2-1. In the second half, we had chances to go 3-1.”
Rayo Vallecano responded late in the first half with a goal from Pedro Diaz in stoppage time, but the visitors couldn’t capitalize in the second half. They have now gone four straight matches without a win – three losses and a draw.
Ancelotti made several changes, rotating his squad ahead of Wednesday's crucial Champions League match against Atletico Madrid, which Madrid won 2-1 in the first leg of the round of 16. He substituted both Mbappe and Rodrygo during the second half.
"I had no problem replacing the forwards," Ancelotti said. "We needed to defend towards the end of the match.”
Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid squandered a chance to reclaim the top spot in the league after a 2-1 loss at Getafe.
Despite taking the lead through a penalty from Alexander Sorloth in the 75th minute, Atletico collapsed after Angel Correa was sent off for a hard foul, resulting in a red card after a video review.
Mauro Arambarri equalized for Getafe in the 88th minute and netted the winner in stoppage time, condemning Atletico to their third loss in four matches. Atletico are now one point behind Madrid and Barcelona.
In other matches, fourth-placed Athletic Bilbao had to settle for a 1-1 home draw against Mallorca, with Antonio Raillo giving the visitors the lead in the 56th minute before Nico Williams equalized moments later.
Real Betis climbed to sixth place with a 1-0 victory over 10-man Las Palmas, with Diego Llorente scoring in the 65th minute after Dário Essugo was sent off for a foul in the 61st minute.
Sevilla bounced back from two consecutive defeats with a 1-0 win over Real Sociedad.
Chidera Ejuke’s 46th-minute goal secured the three points, with Sociedad failing to win in their last four matches across all competitions.
