Vedat Muriqi’s coach once called him a “strange, ugly beast”, everyone else calls him the Pirate and if he saw himself on a dark, empty street he reckons he’d cross over too, but Real Madrid couldn’t avoid him. Being proud even to share a pitch with them – world stars, in his words – doesn’t mean that alone is enough. This is Kylian Mbappé’s league, the front pages said on Sunday morning; the night, though, belonged to RCD Mallorca, the 6ft 4in Kosovan with the big beard, pony tail and scurvy smile crashing through them to bludgeon the first competitive goal Thibaut Courtois has conceded in a year and stand there, one hand a patch over his eye the other pointing to everybody in the place.
“This is wonderful,” he said.
