Real Madrid's Frustrating Test Against Betis

Real Madrid discovered the hard way what a real test feels like this season. Not because they were outplayed, but because every road to goal seemed cursed.

They created. And created. And created again.

Three efforts crashed against the woodwork. A penalty went begging in stoppage time. And in between, Valles produced the kind of goalkeeping performance that turns a routine league night into a personal highlight reel.

At the heart of it all stood Kylian Mbappé, the face of Madrid’s growing desperation. He found space, broke lines, attacked the box. He had chances of almost every type: one-on-ones, shots from the edge, efforts inside the six-yard area. A double opportunity in the first half seemed destined to end in a roar from the away end, only for Valles and his defenders to smother both attempts at the last instant.

The pattern never really changed. Whenever Mbappé thought he had finally beaten the keeper, another hand, another leg, another fingertip appeared.

The climax came in the 94th minute. Penalty to Madrid. Mbappé on the spot, the script already written in most people’s minds. He struck, Valles guessed right and saved. For a few seconds, there was confusion and the hint that the kick might be retaken. Hernández Hernández stepped in and shut that door. No second chance. No reprieve.

If Mbappé embodied the frustration, he was not alone in feeling it.

Jude Bellingham, usually the pulse and punch of Madrid’s midfield, looked drained almost from the opening stages. The suffocating heat of La Cartuja seemed to wrap itself around him. He still ran, still offered himself, still tried to knit attacks together, but the sharp, decisive edge that has defined his start to the season dulled noticeably. Even so, he came within inches of scoring again, denied only by Valles and the crossbar.

Espí also saw a promising header turned away by the keeper, another piece in a long catalogue of Madrid near-misses.

For a brief moment near the 90th minute, it looked as if the visitors had finally broken the spell. The Valencia forward found a way past the home goalkeeper and the ball hit the net. Relief, at last. But the flag and the whistle cut the celebration short: the move was ruled out for an earlier offside. Along with the late penalty decision, it will feed the debate and the anger in the hours to come.

On the left, Vini lived a different kind of ordeal. He ran into Bellerín again and again, and almost every time the Betis full-back came out on top. Duels that Vini often bends to his will went the other way, one after another. Still, the Brazilian refused to disappear. His persistence earned the penalty that should have brought Madrid level, and earlier he had also rattled the woodwork after one of the best collective moves of the first half.

Madrid did many things right. They created enough to win, perhaps twice. But on a night when the posts, the crossbar, a defiant goalkeeper and a couple of key refereeing calls all lined up against them, José Mourinho’s forwards walked away empty-handed and seething.

If this was their first serious examination of the campaign, the question now is simple: how quickly can this attack turn frustration into something far more ruthless?