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Real Madrid suffered a setback in their title defence with a loss against Mallorca.
Carlo Ancelotti, the manager of Real Madrid, has expressed his disappointment following his team's 1-0 loss to Mallorca, which hands an advantage to Barcelona, who could go eight points clear at the top of the league with a victory over Sevilla.
Madrid slip up
A cross from Dani Rodriguez was contested in the air by Verdat Muriqi and Nacho Fernandez, with the ball coming off the Real Madrid defender last to deflect the ball to the far post, leaving Andriy Lunin flat-footed and putting the home side 1-0 up in the 13th minute of the game. Real Madrid had a chance to equalise on the hour mark from the penalty spot, but Predrag Rajkovic guessed right to save Marco Asensio's tame shot.
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It was the sixth time Madrid would fail to pick up maximum points this season, putting five points behind league leaders Barcelona and a potential eight. Ancelotti was clearly disappointed about the defeat and he says he and his team were heartbroken.
"We are heartbroken. That early goal and the missed penalty destroyed us," Ancelotti said.
"I chose Asensio for the penalty. The order is Benzema and Modrić, the best. Then I decide according to who is playing. Asensio, Rodrygo, Kroos..."
The Italian manager also spoke about the LaLiga race, saying his team would fight for it until the end as there are many games left.
"We will fight for La Liga's title until the final. This is not over yet. There are many games left."
‘These things happen,’ - Nacho
The scorer of the own-goal Nacho Fernandez, also spoke after the game, acknowledging that his team were not good enough on the day. When asked about his own goal, he said it was unfortunate.
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“Tough game. They defended well. We were not good enough,” Nacho said.
“Own goal? These things happen. It’s unfortunate. We had the penalty to equalise the game but it was not to be.”
Real Madrid would travel to Morocco for the Club World Cup, where they would face Al-Ahly in the semi-final.
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