Los Blancos got the first victory of the year in La Liga (1-2) in a suffered game at Benito Villamarín. Dani Ceballos scored the second goal from a free kick in the last moment of the game after being constantly booed by his former supporters. With many youngster and playing very defensively, Real Madrid improved in the first half but got very lucky in the second one.
Santiago Hernán Solari decided to change the formation for the visit to Betis and he included five defenders in the line-up, with Fede Valverde and Casemiro in the midfield. So it was a quite defensive line-up, without Isco again despite the many absences in the team. Vinicius Jr. started the game although he missed the last training sessions for a flu.
Betis started the game controlling the ball, with a lot of possession and Los Blancos tried to play at the counter attack, with Vinicius Junior and the found the net quite eartly. In the 12th minute, Benzema shot, but the ball ended up in Carvajal feet, who passed to Luka Modric. The Croatian midfielder shot from outside the box scoring the first goal of the game.
After the goal, Los Blancos didn’t suffer and they could score the second with clear chances from Valverde in a counter attack. It was a comfortable first half, without suffering and arriving to Pau’s goal with the possibility to open the gap. The first half ended in a very bad way because Karim Benzema got injured and had to be substituted in the half time for Cristo, who made his debut in La Liga.
In the second half, Betis improved. The pressure was higher and Los Blancos didn’t create any trouble to Pau. The Andalusian team saw Keylor Navas much more and Guardado created some danger with a beautiful volley. In the 66th minute, Canales found the net after the VAR revision. The situation seemed offside, but the referee didn’t think the same. Los Blancos were suffering and Solari put Ceballos and Brahim in the pitch but the team didn’t improve.
Luckily, Ceballos saved the three points with a free kick in the 87th minute. The former Betis player was booed by the supporters and he wanted to take revenge with a very important goal. Los Blancos win their first game of the year in La Liga suffering and not playing very well, again.
