The French forward narrowly lost out on the Ballon d’Or to Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane on Monday and then had to apologise after a social media storm following a video in which he joked about former Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Because of the fallout, real Madrid’s match, along with other Spanish fixtures this weekend, was not broadcast by Chinese state television. Kylian Mbappe moved on from a tumultuous week by scoring a penalty to help Real Madrid win 3-0 at Racing Santander on Sunday. Jude Bellingham and Yan Diomande were also on target to keep third-place Madrid within three points of leaders Barcelona, who thrashed Alaves 6-1 on Saturday.
Mbappe won a soft penalty as he went down under little pressure from Matteo Prati, smashing it home to put Madrid ahead at the Sardinero stadium in the 11th minute. Jose Mourinho’s side have won six straight games across all competitions and are a point behind city rivals Atletico Madrid, who beat Levante 2-0.
“In the first half we were very strong, we came out to play well,” Mourinho told reporters.
It was the 27-year-old’s 12th league goal of the season, trailing only Barcelona’s Raphinha with 15 in the scoring charts.
“Evidently we came across a great Madrid, who put us under a lot of pressure in the first half hour, and were much better than us, but what conditions everything was the first goal and the penalty.”
“The team is growing, playing well, I think we should have scored even more goals with the chances we had.”
