Mbappe's late penalty edges Real Madrid past nine-man Rayo Vallecano

MADRID, Feb 1 : A penalty from Kylian Mbappe in the 10th minute of stoppage time rescued Real Madrid on Sunday, giving them an agonising 2-1 victory over local rivals Rayo Vallecano in LaLiga and keeping Los Blancos within one point of leaders Barcelona.

Mbappe held his nerve to slot into the bottom left corner after Brahim Diaz was clumsily brought down in the box by Nobel Mendy deep into added time, calming down a furious Santiago Bernabeu crowd who were heavily booing their team's underwhelming performance.

A feisty encounter saw Rayo finish the match with nine men, after Pathe Ciss was shown a straight red card for a dangerous tackle on Dani Ceballos in the 80th minute and Pep Chavarria was sent off for a second booking in the dying moments.

"Winning always brings happiness. The energy changes quite a bit," Real captain Federico Valverde told DAZN, referring to the importance of recovering from the humbling midweek loss to Benfica in the Champions League.

"The most important thing is to improve, grow as a team and try to be calmer. We can't always be waiting for our opponents to make mistakes. We must improve in attack and score more goals."

Despite their victory, Real Madrid faced a setback early in the match when Jude Bellingham limped off in tears with a suspected hamstring injury. The 22-year-old Englishman pulled up awkwardly while chasing a long ball and had to be substituted after just nine minutes.

Vinicius Jr opened the scoring for Real Madrid in the 16th minute with a piece of individual brilliance.

The Brazilian winger stormed down the left flank, effortlessly gliding past defender Andrei Ratiu before curling a stunning shot over Rayo goalkeeper Augusto Batalla, the ball clipping the underside of the crossbar on