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Real Madrid endured a disastrous night at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu as Los Blancos were sucker-punched by an injury-time winner to lose 1-0 to Real Betis. The result leaves Madrid 7 points behind Barcelona in the La Liga title race, with Madrid in 7th place in the table.
Zinedine Zidane's side goalscoring run came to an end, as Betis also managed a shutout, with Madrid now equalling Santos on 73 consecutive competitive games. After the entirety of the game where Madrid threw the kitchen sink at Antonio Adan in the Betis goal, Antonio Sanabria scored the winner with a header in the 94th minute of the game to silence the Bernabeu.
Here are the major talking points from the game.
#1 Cristiano Ronaldo's nightmare return
Ahead of the game, all eyes were on Ronaldo as he made his return to the Real Madrid side to play his first La Liga game of the season. The Portuguese star is always one for the numbers, especially when it comes to goals, and with Lionel Messi fresh of his four-goal salvo against Eibar, there was only one thing on Ronaldo's mind tonight.
Ultimately, it was to the detriment of Real Madrid - Ronaldo had 7 shots at goal at the end of the first half, but had only completed 8 passes in the same 45 minutes. The 'selfish' term has been unfairly bandied about at Ronaldo previously, but there was hint of truth to it tonight.
However, you write Ronaldo off at your own peril, and while it was not the dreamlike return the Portuguese star would have envisaged, this game will only serve the fuel the hunger within him to succeed. Lionel Messi may be 9 goals ahead, Barcelona may be 7 points clear, but you write Ronaldo and Real Madrid off at your own peril.
#2 The night of the Antonios
In the 94th minute of the game, Antonio Juan Barragán Fernández chipped a gorgeous cross from the right wing to Antonio Arnaldo Sanabria Ayala at the far post to score past Keylor Navas and mark the crowning moment of the game.
However, it was a couple of other Antonios who affected the game over 90 minutes much more.
In goal, Antonio Adan was supreme, making crucial save after save, one more improbable than the other as Real Madrid threw all of their might at him. The former Madridista had the game of his life, performing better in a Betis jersey than he ever did in a Madrid one, but tellingly, refused to celebrate at the end, in respect to the club that made him the player he is.
What will grab the headlines and dominate bar conversations in Madrid tomorrow though, is the performance of referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz, who, while getting most of the decisions correct and was mostly excellent throughout, could possibly have missed out on giving two penalties to Madrid, one a tackle on Marcelo and the other a handball, both occurring in the first half.
#3 Real Madrid lost shape far too early
For a team that had scored in its 73 previous games, Real Madrid looked surprisingly out of ideas when it came to chasing games in the last 20 minutes of the game. Cross after aimless cross came in from Dani Carvajal and Marcelo on both flanks, with the pair having less than stellar games.
Despite the umpteen corners that Toni Kroos took, Madrid failed to fashion a single clear chance, criminally so when Sergio Ramos was on the pitch. The end result? That much-praised scoring streak came to a bitter end.
The blame may lie with Zinedine Zidane - the Frenchman took off Isco and Modric with 20 minutes left to play, which left Lucas Vaquez having to fill in in the middle as Madrid ended the game with Borja Mayoral, Gareth Bale, Marco Asensio and Cristiano Ronaldo all getting in each others way for the better part of 20 minutes.
It can work sometimes, but the time to go all out is after the 80th minute - Madrid lacked a cohesive plan, and all their panic lead to an overload that brought about their downfall at the opposite end of the pitch.
Zinedine Zidane faces another one of his toughest tests as Real Madrid manager now - ensuring that Madrid retain what made them what they are today - their calm, even when things go wrong.
#4 Quique Setien deserves huge credit
One look at the lineups ahead of the game, and one could have assumed that Quique Setien had already given up the ghost and accepted the thrashing that many predicted would ensue. The Betis manager had dropped his best players in the league so far, with all of Sergio Leon, Joaquin and Andres Guardado left on the bench.
However, Setien had a plan:
While Cristian Tello and Francis Guerrero did not have the best of games, along with Tony Sanabria, they were full of running, chasing long balls and never offering Madrid's defence a moments rest. Channels were cut in the middle, with Toni Kroos and Luka Modric misplacing their passes, and when Madrid were forced out wide, Carvajal and Marcelo were comfortably blocked.
Setien had his players indulge in the dark arts too - Mandi and Barragan were ever eager to waste time while going down injured, further breaking up Madrid's rhythm.
It was the perfectly designed away victory, and Betis managed to defeat the mighty Madrid at the Bernabeu for the first time since 1998.
They truly deserved to celebrate like this:
#5 Gareth Bale should leave Real Madrid
Had any Premier League / Tottenham Hotspur / Wales fan tuned in to the game tonight, they would have been left shocked at the performance of Gareth Bale. However, it would have nothing to do with the quality of his play, but rather the style of it.
A certain degree of altruism is expected from everyone when Cristiano Ronaldo is on the pitch, but Bale took it to extreme levels tonight. In positions on the right wing where earlier he would cut inside and unleash one of his thunderbolts, Bale opted to cross, ever the team player.
The Welshman earned a rare burst of applause whenever he tracked back, but the jeers continued. If he was destined to succeed at Real Madrid, his ingenious backheel would have gone in, and the Bernabeu would have feted him as their hero.
Fate has its ways and perhaps Bale should listen to it - the time has come for him to leave Madrid, for his own sake.
