Real Madrid had a lot of the ball but were frustrated by their hosts in the opening quarter of an hour.
That looked to have changed when Antonio Rudiger’s ball over the top played Kylian Mbappée through, but Mallorca got bodies back to block the shot before Mbappé crossed for the arriving Manuel Angel, whose header was easily claimed by Leo Roman.
Mbappe continued to threaten – latching onto a sweeping Arda Guler ball and forcing Roman into a smart stop with his foot, then opening up his body to curl an effort around the goalkeeper, who was equal to it again.
The half-hour mark ticked by with the deadlock still intact, and soon after Román was called upon to preserve it when a floated Trent Alexander-Arnold cross was turned goalwards by Guler’s cushioned volley.
All those missed chances came back to haunt Los Blancos in the 42nd minute, when Pablo Maffeo was afforded space on the right and crossed for Morlanes, who waited for the ball to sit up for him before guiding it past Andriy Lunin with the hosts’ first shot on target.
With another Mbappé chance thwarted by Los Piratas’ goalkeeper being the extent of Real’s attacking output in the first 15 minutes after the restart, Alvaro Arbeloa threw Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior into the action.
Neither made an immediate impact as Mallorca sat deep and attempted to hit the visitors on the break, but Bellingham was involved in a sustained attack which ended limply by means of Aurelien Tchouameni’s off-target effort with 12 minutes to play.
Soon after, Eder Militao was wasteful with a header at a set piece, but didn’t make the same mistake in the 88th minute, leaping high to head home Alexander-Arnold’s corner to spare Los Merengues’ blushes.
Or so he thought, as Martin Demichelis’ side went on the attack as injury time began, and when Mateo Joseph found Muriqi, the big centre-forward fired the winner into the roof of the net.
It’s just a second victory in eight and a first triumph this season against a team beginning the round in the top seven for Mallorca.
The end of a five-match winning run in all competitions leaves Real at risk of falling as many as seven points behind in the title race this weekend.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Leo Román (RCD Mallorca)