Real Madrid Waste Chances as Bakambu Stuns Mourinho's Side

Real Madrid walked off the pitch in Seville shaking their heads. They had dominated, carved Betis open time and again, and still left La Cartuja with nothing. One lapse, one rebound, one swing of Cédric Bakambu’s boot – and José Mourinho’s unbeaten start to the season was gone with a 1-0 defeat, just days before their Champions League campaign begins.

Madrid start fast, Betis hang on

Mourinho had not sugar-coated it in the build-up. Betis would demand Real Madrid at full throttle, he warned. The message seemed to land in the opening minutes.

Madrid flew out, aggressive and sharp. Kylian Mbappé almost struck early, darting in behind and threatening to silence the home crowd. Álvaro Valles, already alert, then produced a superb stop in the 13th minute to turn away a thunderous drive from Dean Huijsen.

The siege continued. Two minutes later, Vinícius Júnior ghosted into space, met a clever pass from Arda Güler and beat Valles – but not the woodwork. The post rattled, Betis breathed again.

The hosts did not simply retreat. Antony, bright and direct, carried Betis up the pitch and asked questions of Thibaut Courtois with his runs and efforts from the edge of the area. Yet the truly clear chances kept falling to the visitors.

On 44 minutes, Mbappé found himself with the kind of opportunity he usually buries. Valles denied him once, then somehow smothered the follow-up in the same move. Deep into first-half stoppage time, Huijsen rose again, this time seeing his effort cannon off the crossbar. Betis staggered into the break level. Madrid wondered how.

Momentum slips away

The pattern initially survived the interval. Mbappé curled a shot just wide as Madrid hunted the opener that felt inevitable. It never came.

Instead, the rhythm shifted. Gradually, Betis pushed higher, grew braver, and began to disrupt Madrid’s passing lanes. The visitors’ control loosened. The early fluency vanished.

Sensing the drop, Mourinho went to his bench. Bernardo Silva, Yan Diomandé and Trent Alexander-Arnold all arrived to tilt the game back Madrid’s way, to inject precision and fresh legs into a tiring attack. The intent was clear. The payoff was not.

The more Madrid chased, the more their missed chances weighed on them. Every blocked shot, every miscontrolled ball, every wrong decision in the final third seemed to feed Betis’s belief.

Bakambu delivers the punch

The punishment finally arrived. In the 81st minute, a Betis corner caused chaos in the Madrid box. Courtois made the initial save, but the ball broke loose. Bakambu reacted first, pouncing on the rebound and driving it home. La Cartuja erupted. Betis had their lead, Madrid their nightmare scenario.

Mourinho’s team threw everything forward in the dying minutes. Crosses rained in, bodies piled into the box. For a brief second, they thought they had escaped.

Asencio found the net and Madrid celebrated an equaliser – until the referee’s offside decision cut the noise short. One last lifeline remained.

Deep into stoppage time, in the 90+5th minute, Mbappé stood over a penalty with the chance to salvage a point and rewrite the night. He missed. A cruel, decisive full stop on a match Madrid had controlled for so long.

A warning before Europe

When the whistle went, the story was brutally simple. Real Madrid had paid for their wastefulness, undone by a single rebound and their own profligacy. Mourinho’s first defeat of the season arrives at the worst possible moment, right on the eve of the Champions League.

For Betis, this was a statement win, one of the shocks of the round and a victory carved out against a heavyweight that could not finish.

For Madrid, the question now is not how they dominated in Seville – but how quickly they can turn all that dominance into goals when Europe comes calling.