Kylian Mbappé's Penalty Misses in Real Madrid's Defeat to Real Betis

Kylian Mbappé placed the ball on the spot with the game deep in stoppage time, the noise swirling around Estadio La Cartuja. One clean strike and Real Madrid would escape Seville with a point.

He didn’t.

Álvaro Vallés guessed right, sprang low to his right and palmed away Mbappé’s penalty, sealing a 1-0 victory for Real Betis on Friday night and detonating the home crowd into celebration.

The drama didn’t end there. Real Madrid earned a corner and, for a few tense moments, everyone inside the stadium waited to see if the penalty would be retaken. Officials checked whether Vallés had kept at least one foot on the line and that his body hadn’t encroached illegally. The verdict: the save stood. No second chance for Mbappé. No lifeline for Madrid.

Betis had already done the hard part. Their breakthrough came in the 81st minute, when Ireland international Troy Parrott struck what proved to be the winner, capping a disciplined, stubborn performance from the hosts. From that moment on, every Madrid attack felt like a race against the clock.

The pressure finally told in the 87th minute — or so Madrid thought.

Vinícius Jr. conjured a moment of pure invention inside the box, whipping an outside-of-the-boot pass toward Carlos Espí. The youngster met it with an audacious overhead kick, sending the ball flashing past Vallés and into the net. Madrid’s players wheeled away in celebration, convinced they had salvaged a point with a spectacular equalizer.

Then came the familiar pause. VAR intervened. Replays showed the first movement into the area had started from an offside position. The goal was wiped out, the score stayed 1-0, and the mood on the Madrid bench turned from relief to disbelief.

When the final whistle blew, Betis had their statement win. Real Madrid had their first defeat since the return of bombastic manager José Mourinho.

The fallout will be noisy. Officiating in Spain rarely escapes scrutiny, and this weekend the debate will rage even louder: the penalty, the VAR call, the microscopic check on Vallés’ feet at the spot. Every frame will be dissected.

Mourinho, though, has no time to linger on Seville. Real Madrid, kings of Europe with a record 15 UEFA Champions League titles, open their 2026-27 UCL campaign on September 8 at home to Inter Milan.

One bruising night in La Cartuja. A missed penalty. A disallowed masterpiece. And now, the Champions League looms.