Real Betis 1-0 Real Madrid: Valles saves Mbappé penalty as Mourinho’s perfect start ends in Seville

Real Madrid arrived in Seville with three wins, 10 league goals and the sense that José Mourinho’s new team was already learning how to punish opponents. They left La Cartuja with something considerably more useful than another comfortable victory: their first warning.

Real Betis ended Madrid’s perfect LaLiga start with a 1-0 win built on resistance, timing and one extraordinary final act from Álvaro Valles, whose stoppage-time penalty save from Kylian Mbappé completed a night in which Madrid repeatedly reached the edge of control without ever taking possession of it.

This was not a night when Madrid failed to create. It was a night when every missed chance gradually increased the value of Betis simply surviving.

Mourinho started with his strongest attacking core — Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Jude Bellingham — and Madrid generated opportunities during a first half in which the visitors appeared the likelier side to break through. Vinícius threatened, Mbappé found shooting positions and Dean Huijsen also went close, but Betis kept the game level long enough for the balance of the contest to change.

That mattered because Pellegrini’s side had arrived needing a response of their own. Six days after conceding five at Levante, Betis did not try to erase that defeat through reckless ambition. They stayed alive in the match, defended their penalty area with increasing conviction and allowed goalkeeper Valles to become more influential as Madrid’s frustration grew.

The decisive moment arrived in the 81st minute.

Betis attacked from a corner and Natan’s header forced Thibaut Courtois into a sharp save. The goalkeeper could only push the ball back into danger, where substitute Troy Parrott reacted first and drove home the rebound. For more than 80 minutes Betis had refused to let Madrid turn pressure into control; with one touch, Parrott turned that resistance into a lead.

The match then became chaotic.

Mourinho had already reshaped his side from the bench, and Carlos Espí appeared to provide the equaliser late on with an acrobatic finish. Madrid’s celebrations were cut short when the move was ruled out for offside, leaving them to chase the game again as stoppage time approached.

Then came the opportunity that seemed certain to rescue them.

Vinícius was brought down inside the area in added time and Mbappé, who had scored four goals across Madrid’s previous two league matches, stepped forward. Valles guessed correctly and stopped the penalty.

It was the defining image of the night: Madrid’s most prolific attacker, presented with the cleanest possible route back into the match, denied by the goalkeeper who had spent the evening refusing to let their superiority become a goal.

For Madrid, that miss turned an imperfect performance into their first defeat. For Betis, it transformed disciplined survival into one of the first major results of the new LaLiga season.

The significance extends beyond three lost points. Mourinho’s opening victories had shown two different versions of Madrid: a team capable of correcting itself after a difficult first half against Real Sociedad, and one capable of overwhelming Málaga before the interval. La Cartuja produced a third scenario — a match in which the breakthrough never came and urgency gradually replaced clarity. Madrid had chances to prevent that transformation, but none were taken.

Betis deserve equal weight in that story. Pellegrini’s team had conceded five in their previous league appearance yet responded by keeping Madrid scoreless, absorbing the pressure and finding the decisive moment late rather than retreating into damage limitation.

And Parrott’s goal was only half of the conclusion. Valles supplied the other half.

Madrid will now turn immediately toward their Champions League opener against Inter at the Bernabéu, carrying their first defeat into a significantly different level of opposition. Betis travel to Lille for their own European opener with something far more valuable than a recovery from the Levante collapse.

They have proof that when the game refuses to follow Real Madrid’s script, they can make it follow theirs instead.