Arbeloa: Madrid must play at 200% to revive slim LaLiga title hopes


Alvaro Arbeloa believes Real Madrid have no chance of winning LaLiga if they do not play at 200% for the remainder of the season, after their shock defeat to Mallorca.

Vedat Muriqi fired home in the first minute of second-half stoppage time as Mallorca defeated Los Blancos 2-1 at the Estadi Mallorca Son Moix on Saturday.

Eder Militao’s header appeared to have spared Madrid’s blushes following Manu Morlanes’ opener, but Muriqi blasted a fine finish across Andriy Lunin and in to lift Mallorca out of the bottom three.

Madrid, meanwhile, could find themselves as many as seven points adrift of leaders Barcelona by the end of Saturday’s action.

And Arbeloa knows just how damaging Saturday’s defeat could prove in the coming weeks, telling reporters: “It’s clear that it is more difficult now [to win the title] than it was before the start of the game.

“We have eight games left and our objective is to win them all. We have to play at a higher level than today. It’s more difficult, the distance tonight could be even greater.

“We found Mallorca in a good moment for them. We didn’t have enough patience or create one-on-one situations. We lacked chances, and the first half was better than the second.

“The players must understand that without going to 200%, we are not going to win. This is the top level, and we paid the price.”

Excluding last summer’s Club World Cup, Madrid have lost 10 matches across all competitions this season (played 46).

Through 46 matches, they have only lost more games once in the last 17 campaigns, suffering 14 defeats by this stage of the 2018-19 season.

While Madrid were left to rue a dispiriting result, Muriqi was in tears after his winning goal, which came after a tough couple of weeks.

The striker missed a late penalty in a 2-1 defeat to Elche prior to the international break, then failed to lead Kosovo to the World Cup as they were beaten 1-0 by Turkiye in Tuesday’s play-off.

He told Movistar: “I’m human, emotions sometimes take over me…

“I came from missing a penalty in the 92nd minute and losing a point, with my country, we missed the opportunity to go to the World Cup, which was the dream of my life.

“Then, suddenly, I score this great goal to win. We got the victory, thank you very much to the fans. I hope we can stay in LaLiga. I’m proud, we did a good job against the best team in the world.”



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