Real Madrid won their first home game of the new calendar year 3-1 at home to Real Betis, with Gonzalo Garcia, who came on as a substitute for Kylian Mbappe, scoring twice and Thibaut Courtois helping to defend the advantage. Xabi Alonso’s side recorded their second consecutive win over Sevilla, while Manuel Pellegrini’s side lost for the first time this season away in all competitions. The “Galacticos” remain four points behind current LaLiga leaders Barcelona, ​​and the Andalusians are in last place in the European competition.

Real Madrid hosted Real Betis in the 18th round of LaLiga, a match equivalent to the first match played by both teams in the Spanish championship in 2026 in the domestic competition. At the “Bernabeu”, the host team came into this match as the second-placed team in the general hierarchy with a total of 42 points accumulated up to this point of the season, while the “white-greens” were in sixth place in the standings, being 14 lengths behind the team from the Spanish capital.

The most recent match played in front of their own supporters by Real Madrid ended with a triumph recorded in the company of another team from Seville, FC Sevilla, final score 2-0, in a match in which Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe would bring the three points for the students trained by Xabi Alonso. In fact, the “Los Blancos” team had, prior to the start of this match, three consecutive victories in all competitions, after the “chair” of the Basque coach had been “questioned” at some point, following the two consecutive failures suffered in December of last year.

On the other hand, Real Betis, before traveling to the “Bernabeu”, had obtained three victories, a draw and a defeat in the most recent five meetings that had taken place on all “fronts”. The only failure recorded in this series was recorded on home ground against Barcelona, ​​final score 3-5. However, the team trained by Manuel Pellegrini faced the group from the capital of Spain as an undefeated away team in the current season, being the third team of this kind in the first five European championships.

The club from the “Bernabeu” could not rely on several key players in the gear at the time of this game, such as Trent Alexander-Arnold, Brahim Diaz, Eder Militao, Dean Huijsen and Kylian Mbappe, the French star suffering a last-minute knee injury that took him out of the circuit. Isco, Abde Ezzalzouli, Cedric Bakambu and Sofyan Amrabat were the players who could not be included in the small squad called up for this game by the Argentine manager of the Andalusians. Referring to the last direct games that were played between Real Madrid and Real Betis, three draws and one success from each camp were recorded in the most recent five official matches.

The first goal opportunity belonged to the hosts, when Vinicius Junior’s cross was resumed from the first, from a volley, by Federico Valverde, but the execution of the Uruguayan footballer went just wide of the posts defended by Alvaro Valles. In the fifth minute of the game, Vinicius Junior fell inside the penalty area, at the end of an alleged contact he had with Angel Ortiz, but, despite vehement protests from both the field and the stands, the center of the game, Hernandez Hernandez, did not dictate a penalty kick for the Madrid team.

Near the end of the first quarter of an hour of this match, “los blancos” squandered their most important opportunity so far, when the combination in a confined space between Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham found Alvaro Carreras, whose shot was parried, from a few meters, by Alvaro Valles. Then, Rodrygo took possession of the ball approximately 25 meters away from the Real Betis goal, and the Brazilian footballer’s execution was rejected for a corner by the “white-green” goalkeeper, managing to keep his team in the game.

The scoreboard was unblocked in the 20th minute of the match at the Bernabeu, when the substitute in the center of the home attack, Gonzalo Garcia, was on the end of a cross coming from Rodrygo’s boot, and the Spaniard’s header into the far corner did not allow Alvaro Valles to intervene to prevent the goal from being conceded. The visitors’ first appearance in the vicinity of the Real Madrid box occurred when Aitor Ruibal changed sides for Antony, and the Brazilian player decided to enter the center and shoot powerfully into the far corner, but the ball could not be squared in the space of the posts defended by Thibaut Courtois.

Aurelien Tchouameni tried his luck from the edge of the box, when he shot from a central position, but the ball went well over the crossbar. Nelson Deossa had a chance to create danger for Madrid’s goalies near the end of the first half of this match, but the midfielder’s volley from the closing position of the “white-greens” went far beyond the space of the goal defended by the Belgian goalkeeper of Real Madrid. The start of the second half was a “dream” one for the scorer of the only goal of the match up to that point, because Gonzalo Garcia scored his “double”.

The central striker of the home team took a pass on his chest that he received on the edge of the penalty area from Federico Valverde, controlled the ball and shot strongly, from the volley, into the far corner, not giving Alvaro Valles any chance. The one who replaced Kylian Mbappe in the attack thus scored the first two goals of this LaLiga season. The third goal of this match also “fell” into the visitors’ net, when, from a corner kick taken by Rodrygo, the central defender of “los blancos”, Raul Asencio, rose the most and placed the ball in the left corner of the “white-green” goals.

An important opportunity to reduce the deficit recorded on the scoreboard belonged to Aitor Ruibal, who, from a free kick taken from an angle, sent it into the right post of the goal defended by Thibaut Courtois. Marc Roca seriously stretched the Belgian goalkeeper a few moments later, when the visitors’ central midfielder was left with the ball at his feet inside the opponent’s box, but he could not make the most of the action created. The Andalusian team scored in the 66th minute of the match, when Cucho Fernandez received a filtered pass from a teammate, and after dribbling the Belgian goalkeeper of the visitors, the central striker of the “white-greens” scored without any problems, from a few meters.

Real Betis wasted a huge opportunity to score a second goal at the “Bernabeu” within a few minutes, when the execution signed by Antony from inside the box was rejected sideways by the goalkeeper of the band from the Spanish capital. The same South American player escaped alone on the counterattack and tried to score with his left foot, in the far corner, but his attempt was held by Thibaut Courtois.

The fourth goal of this game came with less than 10 minutes to be played by the man of the match, Gonzalo Garcia, who managed to score with the backheel inside the box, after receiving a great pass from Arda Guler. Real Madrid recorded their second consecutive home win against Sevilla, while the “white-greens” lost for the first time away from home this season in all competitions they are involved in. In the last seconds of the game, Fran Garcia managed to score with the whole goal in his face, taking a step further than Hector Bellerin.

“Los Blancos” remain second in the current general standings, with a total of 45 points, four points behind current LaLiga leaders Barcelona, ​​while Real Betis are sixth in the standings, five points behind Espanyol. Next up, the “Bernabeu” club will travel to Saudi Arabia to compete in the Spanish Super Cup, where they will face Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals, while the Andalusians will play away to Real Oviedo in the next round of the domestic championship.