Madrid end their run of three league draws with a thumping victory at the Estadio Benito Villamarín, Isco bagging two goals including the finishing touch to a wonderfully flowing counterattack. That puts Real level at the top of the table with Atlético on 18 points and should silence a few critics – they are on a 22-game unbeaten run after all. Plenty of work for Gus Poyet in the coming weeks after a terrible first-half display, although the second was more promising. That’s all from me, thanks for reading.
90+1 mins Petros is booked for a rugby tackle on Asensio. He should have no complaints, though somehow he has come up with a few. Ronaldo slaps the free-kick high over the bar. He hasn’t been quite at his best tonight though his goal was wonderfully taken.
89 mins Álvaro Cejudo flashes a low shot the wrong side of the near post. Moments later Joaquín flips a clever pass for Castro whose header is well-held by Navas.
87 mins Joaquín wriggles into the box and draws the keeper before pulling the ball back towards the penalty spot, but no one in green and white is near enough to apply the finishing touch.
85 mins The game has opened out and there is another goal in it if someone wants to score. Lucas feeds Ronaldo but his left footed shot flies high over the bar.
Ronaldo collects the ball a long way from goal, passes into Morata’s feet and gets his zoom on. The Portuguese sprints into the box collecting the return pass as he goes, and buries a low finish past Adán.
76 mins ...Whose shot clatters into the Betis wall. The home side try to break but end up losing possession and Roman Zozulya is booked trying to win it back.
75 mins Morata is immediately felled on the edge of the box. Free-kick. He picks up the ball only to have it swiped from his grasp by Cristiano Ronaldo...
71 mins Ceballos’s first contribution is to turn down a golden chance to shoot and instead deliver a disguised dink into the middle, which none of his team-mates had any hope of reading. At the other end Cristiano Ronaldo skies a header from just a couple of yards. It’s not often Real score this many with Ronaldo on the pitch and without him on the scoresheet.
This is a sumptuous finish. Isco collects a loose ball on the left side of the box after Ronaldo’s cross, and shapes his shot inside the far post to leave an out-of-position Antonio Adán with no hope of getting near it.
61 mins Joaquín crosses from the byline but is adjudged to have taken the ball off the pitch. He’s fuming, the crowd behind the goal are fuming, but the assistant referee runs away as quick as he can sidestep.
57 mins Although it was a careless pass by Pepe, Betis deserve credit for pressing high and forcing the issue, something they didn’t do in the first half. A period of home control ends with a slack pass in the final third and it’s Madrid’s turn to counter through Ronaldo – but it comes to nothing.
Pepe gives away a sloppy ball at the back and Betis take advantage with three slick passes setting Álvaro Cejudo in on goal, who takes a touch before firing low past Navas.
51 mins A moment later Betis are at it again through Castro down the right. Joaquín has a chance with his head from the penalty spot with the goalkeeper stranded, but three purple shirts get in between the Betis captain and the goal and make the block.
49 mins Betis pinch the ball in midfield and start a counter. They work it wide for Castro who curls a deep cross into the area, but it’s cooly defended by Pepe on the chest.
47 mins Betis are noticeably snappier at the start of this half, yapping at ankles and clattering into legs. Isco gets hammered in a sandwich of challenges and Germán Pezzella is booked.
Strangely it feels as though Joaquín has been the best player on the pitch, despite being 4-0 down and contributing heartily to one of those goals against his team. The guy is brilliant on the ball though and seems to make the right decision nine times from ten – it just happened that the tenth was catastrophic in this particular half. And he can move:
“Hi Lawrence,” John McEnerney sends from his iPad. “Real of late making hard work of the run of the mill teams like Betis that La Liga is full of bit like Andy Murray at a Grand Slam 5 setters against lads ranked 100 places below him. Kroos is a joy to watch when he’s on bit like Xavi & Iniesta. 5-0 away win! Enjoy the rest of it! Top coverage as always.” In fairness I think this email was sent before the last couple of goals, but 5-0 is now looking pretty conservative.
This is as ruthless a team goal as you are likely to see. From a Betis corner, Madrid break. Five or six stream forward as Pepe finds Kovacic who plays in Benzema. The striker power through the middle before feeding Ronaldo on the left of the box, who plays the ball first time across the area to the back post for Pepe arriving. If that pass hadn’t befuddled the Betis defence then his layoff for Isco certainly does, who sweeps the ball into an empty net. The goal was scored in about a hundredth of the time it took me to type it out. Quick, one-touch, incisive stuff. Great to watch, unless you’re Gus Poyet.
41 mins Madrid stream forward on the counterattack and had Carvajal’s cross been better, they might be four goals clear. Instead it’s too deep and Betis eventually get the ball safe.
There is some fortune about this with Benzema’s deflected shot crashing against Marcelo’s shoulder, spinning up into the air and sitting perfectly for him to hit from eight yards. The shot is a little lucky too, scuffed into the ground and over the diving Adán, but I’m sure the left-back won’t be too fussed. This could be a long night for Betis.
34 mins Joaquín turns on the style this time, dribbling down the right and feeding Piccini inside him. The right-back fires a shot towards goal and it is only narrowly over.
My Joaquín eulogy was ill-timed. He tries to dribble through three Madrid players, loses the ball and they quickly break. Kroos feeds Karim Benzema who pulls off to the left in some space and strokes the ball past Adán with ease.
29 mins Good football from the home side who build up neatly to find Castro in some space lurking on the left of the box. He opens his body and bends the ball around the reaching Navas, but the shot flies just around the frame of the goal too.
27 mins Joaquín looks superb, picking the ball up in the final third and shaking off purple shirts before playing into a team-mate’s feet and looking for the return. Unfortunately the ball is bouncing off their boots like a trampoline – the return ball just never comes.
25 mins Ronaldo collects the ball with his back to goal, spins along the edge of the box and fires a low shot straight at Adán. He’s getting more and more involved.
21 mins Bale whips in a ball towards Cristiano Ronaldo who doesn’t make contact and it runs through to Adán in goal. Ronaldo might feel he should have taken that chance, and graciously applauds Bale’s ball.
19 mins The problem with these sort of games for a side like Betis is that you don’t get many chances so when one comes along, you must take it. Unfortunately on this occasion Castro decides to shoot from 30 yards rather than play in a team-mate and that might be their best opening of the half gone.
16 mins Zinedine Zidane and Gus Poyet both prowl the edge of what must be the largest technical areas in European top-flight football. I don’t have the stats to back that claim up, but take my word for it – they are huge.
14 mins It should be two! Gareth Bale gets on the end of Kroos’s cross and attacks it at the back post with a diving header. The ball crashes against post, then goalkeeper, before running away for a corner. Bale was ready to celebrate.
10 mins Kovacic makes the sort of sudden impact that made him such a prospect in his teenage years, bursting through the middle of the pitch. Only a last-ditch tackle denies the midfielder but Madrid get a corner and are turning up the heat on Betis.
8 mins Joaquín works a one-two in midfield before breaking towards the right wing. He feeds a lovely weighted pass behind Marcelo for the right-back Piccini to chase, but his low cross is well-defended by Varane.
6 mins The crowd’s initial, excitable buzz has been replaced by boos and whistles as Madrid come forward again. Isco delivers a cross to the far post and Ronaldo must score, but somehow bumps the ball over the bar from a couple of yards with what was near enough an open goal.
Kroos bends the ball beautifully towards the penalty spot, but even so the Betis marking is woeful. A queue of purple shirts line up to head the ball home and Raphaël Varane is the lucky man, burying it into the top-right corner.
Raphael Varane heads in to open the scoring. Photograph: Marcelo Del Pozo/Reuters
Poyet has rejigged his side somewhat, and target man Álex Alegría is set to start alongside Rubén Castro in attack, meaning Joaquín will play in midfield.
Will Real Madrid miss Sergio Ramos? He is expected to be out for about six weeks after picking up an injury playing for Spain, but in truth the captain has made some costly errors already this season and the combination of Pepe and Raphaël Varane isn’t too shabby. Luka Modric and Casemiro are still a way from returning and James Rodriguez remains on the road to recovery, so Madrid’s midfield continues to be a patched up job. On the plus side, Marcelo returns to the side after his injury.
Right about now Atlético Madrid are rounding off a heavy win against Granada, a result which leaves Real Madrid needing a big win of their own at the Estadio Benito Villamarín tonight if they are to return to the top of La Liga. Real’s smooth start to the season has quickly turned into what on their planet is considered something of a crisis: the run of four draws in all competitions before the international break has raised plenty of probing questions over whether they can cope without long-term absentees Luka Modric and Casemiro and, more significantly, how exactly a Zinedine Zidane team is meant to play.
That run must end tonight against Real Betis but in Madrid’s way stands a manager energised by his new challenge in Spain, and a team spearheaded by the goals of Rubén Castro and the guile of Joaquín – a forward duo with a combined age of 70 but still with the ability to threaten defences. Gus Poyet’s side are performing at about par so far, beating struggling Valencia and Malaga but “swallowing six” – in the manager’s words – from Barcelona. Any Betis result tonight will be hard for Zidane to swallow, especially with their rampant city neighbours at the top of La Liga. Expect a response from Real.
