Madrid's Ruthless Response After Betis Slip
Madrid’s response to their Betis slip was ruthless.
Four goals, three points, and a reminder that at the Bernabéu, Rayo rarely leave with anything but regrets. They haven’t won there since 1996, and that run never looked in danger on this Saturday night.
Kylian Mbappé set the tone. He won the duel, took the ball, and buried the penalty to open the scoring, calm as you like. Rayo protested, the crowd roared, but the Frenchman simply turned away, already thinking about the next attack.
The next attack came quickly.
Mbappé drifted into space and picked out Álvaro Carreras, who arrived at just the right moment to make it 2–0. Clinical. Madrid were slicing through Rayo now, every move laced with purpose.
The third goal carried a familiar pattern. Vinícius Jr darted down the flank, cut the ball back with precision, and Jude Bellingham did what he’s made a habit of doing in Madrid white: arrive in the box and finish. Three goals, 45 minutes, game seemingly done.
Madrid had played with a sharpness that made their shock defeat to Real Betis feel like an aberration. Four wins from five to start La Liga, and this one looked the most comfortable of the lot by half-time.
Then the legs started to go.
The schedule has been heavy, the Champions League already biting into the energy reserves, and it showed after the break. Rayo sensed it and pushed higher. Sergio Camello pounced to pull one back, a reminder that Madrid’s control had dipped and that the home side were no longer cruising.
José Mourinho saw it coming.
“We score a lot of goals, but we also miss a lot of chances,” he admitted afterwards, as quoted by MadridXtra. “I told my staff that one day there will be a team that will pay for all these missed chances (laughs). There will be a match where we score seven goals.”
On this night, they didn’t need seven, but the warning stands. Madrid’s first-half blitz could easily have produced more. The second half, by contrast, was about survival as much as style.
“We played for 45 minutes and then it was over,” Mourinho said. “I knew the players were tired and couldn't play another half like that. Look at how Bellingham played the final ten minutes, with no energy.”
Even so, the quality at the top end of the pitch still decided it.
Deep into stoppage time, Mbappé struck again to kill off any lingering doubt and seal the 4–1 win. That goal did more than just settle the night. It pulled him level with Karim Benzema’s 2021–22 mark of six goals in the first five league games, a record that underlines how quickly he has made himself the reference point of this attack.
While Mbappé grabbed the headlines, another of Madrid’s summer stars quietly tightened his grip on the team’s rhythm.
Bernardo Silva is not the one racing in behind or finishing cut-backs, but his influence grows with every match. He arrived as a marquee signing; he is now becoming the metronome. When Madrid needed to breathe, he took the ball. When they needed to advance, he stitched passes together and dragged the team up the pitch.
“We are happy with the three points, but now we need to get ready for the next game,” Silva said afterwards. Asked what Mourinho wants from him, he was clear: “To help in the build-up with the ball. He wants me to give the team more fluidity so we can progress the ball. I'm trying to adapt and to give the best version of myself.”
Four wins from five. Seventeen home games unbeaten against Rayo. Mbappé matching Benzema’s early-season scoring pace. Bernardo Silva quietly taking charge of the tempo.
Madrid look dangerous, even when tired. The question now is simple: when that inevitable game comes where all those missed chances finally go in, who will be on the receiving end of the seven-goal storm Mourinho has promised?
