Real Madrid Miss Another Chance To Overtake Barcelona, Play Out 3-3 Draw vs Rayo Vallecano

Rayo Vallecano prevented Real Madrid from taking provisional control of La Liga by holding the European champions' to a pulsating 3-3 draw on Saturday. Real turned up at their city rivals after a hard fought 3-2 away win at Atalanta in the Champions League in midweek. Kylian Mbappe netted his 50th goal in the competition to open the scoring in Italy only to come off with a thigh injury which left the French star out of Carlo Ancelotti's calculations for this Saturday night away date in the Spanish capital.

Rayo Vallecano, on the back of a win last time out, stunned the visiting giants when Unai Lopez headed in Jorge de Frutos's pin-perfect cross with the game only four minutes old.

Rayo went for the kill at a raucous Estadio de Vallecas, only for de Frutos's shot to fly over the bar.

But the home side only had to wait until after the half hour mark to double their lead with another header, this time from Abdul Mumin.

That unexpected scoreline only lasted three minutes as Fede Valverde pulled one back for Real with a tremendous 25-yard strike for his fourth goal of the season.

Just as Rayo might have been thinking of going into the break in the lead, Jude Bellingham bagged the leveller in the first minute of first-half stoppage time.

The England international headed Rodrygo's clip into the bottom corner for his sixth straight goal in the league.

Real emerged in the second half intent on completing their comeback and their climb to the top of the table, for 24 hours at least.

Arda Guler had the ball in the back of the net but Real's Turkish teenager's effort was disallowed for clear offside.

Two minutes later, Rodrygo put the visitors in front for the first time in style, the Brazilian winger's shot flying into the top