Real Madrid arrived in Seville with nine points from nine, Kylian Mbappé and Vini Jr on the teamsheet, and Barcelona’s early-season lead in their sights. They left Estadio de La Cartuja with their perfect start checked, their attack frustrated, and Real Betis quietly satisfied with a hard-earned 0-0 draw.
It was a night that promised goals. It never quite delivered them.
Madrid’s stars, Betis’s wall
Thibaut Courtois had the first serious piece of work, palming away an early effort from Antony after a sloppy Madrid throw-in invited trouble. The Brazilian winger cut across the ball and aimed high for the top-left corner, but the Belgian read it and held firm.
Madrid responded by tightening their grip on the ball and the pitch. Eduardo Camavinga and Fede Valverde pushed the visitors higher, Jude Bellingham and Arda Guler drifted between the lines, and the game began to tilt towards Valles’s goal.
The first clear warning came on 15 minutes. A long cross dropped into the Betis box and both Guler and Bellingham attacked the same space. They collided, Guler got a toe to it, but the mix-up turned a promising opening into a tame effort that Valles could gather without fuss. It set the tone: Madrid’s ideas were sharp, their execution just a fraction off.
The pressure built again on 21 minutes. Mbappé delayed his pass across goal, clearly tempted to carve out a shooting lane for himself. When he finally squared it, Vini Jr had to adjust, hesitated, and could only stab the ball against the outside of the post. A half-chance, wasted.
Betis, though, refused to sink into their own area. When they broke, they did it with intent. Antony’s touch and Cucho’s movement kept Madrid’s back line honest, even if the end product wavered. On 29 minutes, Antony produced the moment of the half for the hosts, cushioning the ball beautifully before laying it off to Cucho. The shot, drilled low, veered wide. A let-off, but also a reminder: Madrid could not simply camp and expect Betis to disappear.
Tempers flickered shortly after. Dean Huijsen clattered into Cucho, prompting a brief flare-up and some pointed words from Antony before the referee signalled a hydration break. It was hot, tense, and increasingly scrappy.
Mbappé denied, Betis dig in
As half-time approached, the game opened up. Madrid sprang forward on the counter after a sluggish Betis reaction, Vini Jr driving into the left channel. Forced wide by Valles, he still managed to flash a deflected effort behind for a corner. Huijsen climbed highest from the set piece, only to send his header just over the bar.
Then came Madrid’s best chance of the night.
Vini Jr again found space, again forced Valles into a decision. The goalkeeper narrowed the angle, the Brazilian checked, and rolled the ball back to the onrushing Mbappé. The finish seemed inevitable. It wasn’t. The first shot was blocked. The rebound fell kindly, but the Frenchman’s second attempt was smothered as well. Two sights of goal, no breakthrough.
Betis took that escape into the break. Madrid took their frustration.
Half-time arrived at 0-0, with Manuel Pellegrini already weighing up his options. Troy Parrott, the Irish forward under a harsh local microscope after a mixed display against Levante, remained on the bench. His time would have to wait.
Second half, same story
The restart brought no immediate changes and, crucially, no sudden surge in tempo. Madrid resumed their territorial dominance, Betis stayed compact, and the match slipped into a spell that lacked the crackle of the first half.
A free kick for Madrid early in the second period looked promising on paper. In reality, it drifted tamely into Valles’s arms, the goalkeeper stepping out to claim the floated delivery without a hint of panic. It summed up the pattern: Madrid probing, Betis reading, clearing, resetting.
The hosts lost Llorente after a nasty clash with a team-mate, the defender taking a blow to the nose and making way for Marc Bartra. Betis shuffled but did not buckle. They still threatened sporadically on the break, only to waste promising counters with poor choices in the final third, one move in particular breaking down when a cross was replaced by a short, hesitant pass that allowed Madrid to flood back.
On the touchline, Parrott waited. Pellegrini, though, held him back. For the Irish striker, this was another evening of watching and learning as his team slugged it out with one of Europe’s giants.
Inside the ground, the sense grew that a single mistake or moment of brilliance would decide it. Neither came. Madrid’s rhythm dulled, Betis’s resistance hardened, and the clock became the home side’s ally.
Context, and a question
For Madrid, the draw nudges them to 10 points from four games, still unbeaten but now glancing up at Barcelona on goal difference rather than storming past them. They carried the bigger names, the clearer chances, and yet left without the goal that would have underlined their early-season authority.
Betis, seventh at kick-off and fresh from a 5-2 bruising by Levante, will bank this as a statement of resilience. They have already beaten Real Sociedad and Valencia; now they have stood firm against Mbappé, Vini Jr and Bellingham without blinking.
Parrott, meanwhile, remains on the fringes of the story. La Liga has already judged him once, the local press quick to mark him down. His next minutes, when they finally come, will arrive in a team that has shown it can live with the very best.
Madrid will move on, still loaded with firepower, still expected to chase down Barcelona. Betis will do the same, chasing Europe from the shadows.
The question is simple: when these two cross paths again, will anyone be able to keep this Real Madrid forward line scoreless a second time?
