Real Madrid’s chances at defending their La Liga title are slowly slipping away from them. This time, Real Betis delivered Madrid’s 3rd loss of the season. Only 1 goal was needed for Betis to overcome the incumbent La Liga champions, who have clearly had a bad season thus far.
Madrid’s defeat was their 1st in their previous 9 La Liga matches, while Betis recorded their 1st win in 3 games, their previous game ending in an embarrassing 5-1 defeat to Sevilla. Despite Real Madrid’s domination of the game, the 9 time Champions League winners were unable to penetrate Betis’ solid defense. Betis goalkeeper Adrian was clearly on top of his game, making multiple vital saves.
The first strike was made by none other than Cristiano Ronaldo, who’s left-footed shoot was easily punched by the goalkeeper. Madrid’s second good chance was taken by Germany international Sami Khedira, who’s ball went just wide of the goal.
It was Benat, though, who made Betis’ win possible. About 30 yards from the goal, Benat dribbled the ball down past Khedira and slotted it into the bottom-left corner, beyond Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas’ reach.
But it could have ended even worse for Los Blancos. Diving into the left side of the goal, Casillas managed a wonderful save following Castro’s powerful strike.
But after that small 10 minute period of Betis success, Mourinho’s men continued to enjoy most of the domination. Angel Di Maria created 2 great chances to equalize. Di Maria’s fired a shot from close range, which quickly Adrian fended off. Benzema caught the ball at his feet, but was unable to place it in the back of the net.
Benzema was sure he had achieved an equalizer after actually getting the ball past the goalkeeper a few minutes later, but it was ruled offside. Di Maria laid out yet another plan to score, but his narrow-angled shot went wide.
Madrid continued to pound Betis’ goal, but despite the numerous chances, all had went wide or were saved. Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored only once in Madrid’s last 5 matches, was unable to score for the team and was clearly unhappy with the results. There are many rumors surrounding Ronaldo such as a possible move to the Premier League next season or a change in nationality (to Spain) to boost his popularity and success.
Earlier today, Rayo Vallecano defeated Mallorca thanks to 2 late strikes in a match that was nothing short of awful. Valladolid just managed a 1-0 victory over Granada after Manucho scored the only goal of the game just after the hour mark. Malaga overcame Valencia (who came in 3rd last year) in their first league win in 5 matches with the score of 4-0, pushing them up into the top 4.
Real Betis took a much needed 3 points from the game, placing them in 5th with a total of 22 points. They currently harbor a 7-1-5 record and are right behind Malaga. Madrid was unable to gain any points from the match, keeping them in 3rd place with 26 points. They have a dissapointing 8-2-3 record, at this point one of their worst in decades, and are still separated by league leaders Barcelona by Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona has not played their 13th league match yet, so providing the Catalans triumph over Levante tomorrow, the gap between arch-rivals Real Madrid and themselves could rise from 8 to 11. This could be fatal to Real Madrid, for unless there is a major screw-up for Barcelona and a huge improvement on Madrid’s part, it is unlikely they will become La Liga champions this season.