Real Madrid Fall At Espanyol As Atletico Cut La Liga Gap

Real Madrid stumbled to a shock 1-0 defeat at struggling Espanyol on Sunday which left them leading La Liga by a single point. Carlos Romero's 85th minute strike snatched victory for the relegation-battling hosts, provisionally 17th. Atletico Madrid pulled within a point of Los Blancos with a 2-0 win against Mallorca earlier, ahead of next weekend's crunch derby clash at the Santiago Bernabeu. Real Madrid were left furious after Romero was only booked for a cynical foul on Kylian Mbappe before going on to net the winner.

However, Carlo Ancelotti's side played far within themselves and did not do enough to take anything from what seemed on paper an inviting fixture.

"Espanyol played a very good game in my opinion, they defended very well, they did what they had to do. Could we have done more? Yes," Ancelotti told reporters.

The Italian coach was angry about the decision not to send off Romero.

"This foul, the decision the referee and VAR took was inexplicable, everyone saw it," continued the coach.

"It's important to protect the players. It was a clear foul, a very ugly tackle, lucky there's no serious injury.

"To us it's inexplicable that they didn't send him off."

Romero admitted he felt bad about scything down the French superstar.

"I knew Kylian is impossible to stop when he's running, I stopped him how I could, it was a bit ugly," Romero told DAZN.

"I didn't like doing it and I said sorry. That's it and there's no more to it."

Espanyol largely kept the Spanish and European champions at bay in the first half.

Real Madrid were dealt a blow when Antonio Rudiger limped off in the first half, with their Champions League play-off tie against Manchester City less than a fortnight away.

Vinicius Junior found the net with