Did refereeing cost Real Madrid a win against Mallorca? (Image)

Real Madrid stumbled at the start of their Spanish league campaign with a 1-1 draw against hosts Real Mallorca.

Despite a brilliant first-half performance by Carlo Ancelotti’s side and Real Madrid’s lead through Rodrygo, Mallorca came back in the second half and equalized through Vedat Muriqi.

The match saw Kylian Mbappé’s debut for Real Madrid in the Spanish league, and after starting his journey with the Merengues with a goal in the European Super Cup match against Atalanta.

Despite the galaxy of stars who played for Real Madrid, the victory was not achieved, and the fans began to blame the referee in particular.

The controversial incident in the match occurred in the first half, when Pablo Maffeo tackled Vinicius Junior with great force.

The Spanish right-back stepped on Vinicius’ leg, and the referee only showed him a yellow card instead of a red card that would have changed the course of the match. Strangely, despite the clarity of the situation, the VAR supported the referee’s decision.

This happened in the last minute of the first half, which means that Mallorca would have played the second half with only 10 players, and thus would probably not have realized the draw, and the course of the match would have been completely different.