Real Madrid fell to a disappointing 2-1 defeat at Athletic Club on Wednesday evening as they lost ground on division leaders Barcelona in La Liga.<\/p>\n
The reigning Spanish champions struggled to create much of note in the first half despite seeing Kylian Mbappe\u2019s effort disallowed for offside. Athletic Club were the side on the front foot but couldn\u2019t break down an injury-stricken Madrid defence.<\/p>\n
That changed shortly after half-time, however, as the hosts took the lead. Thibaut Courtois didn\u2019t cover himself in glory as he parried a cross into Alex Berenguer, with the deflection squirming over the line to ignite the home fans inside San Mames.<\/p>\n
Kylian Mbappe then missed a second penalty in the space of three games, before Jude Bellingham produced an equaliser in the closing stages. He was quickest to react toMbappe\u2019s rebuffed effort, keeping his cool to slot home and extend his impressive goalscoring run.<\/p>\n
However, Athletic Club had the last laugh as they struck just a minute later to secure victory. Federico Valverde was robbed by Gorka Guruzeta deep in his own half and the Spanish forward raced through on goal before restoring the Basque club\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n
The result leaves Madrid four points adrift of table toppers Barcelona, although they do have a game in hand over their Catalan rivals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Real Madrid fell to a disappointing 2-1 defeat at Athletic Club on Wednesday evening as they lost ground on division leaders Barcelona in La Liga. The reigning Spanish champions struggled to create much of note in the first half despite seeing Kylian Mbappe\u2019s effort disallowed for offside. Athletic Club were the side on the front […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":31292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n