Real Madrid Aim for Victory and La Liga Lead in Seville
Real Madrid travel to La Cartuja on Friday knowing the maths is simple: avoid defeat against Real Betis and they go back to the top of La Liga. The intention, though, is far more ambitious than that. Jose Mourinho’s side have opened the 2026-27 campaign with three wins from three, and this trip to Seville is being treated as an early-season yardstick, not a damage-limitation exercise.
The champions have been gathering pace. After a laboured, narrow victory over Espanyol two weeks ago, Madrid clicked into a higher gear at the Bernabeu, sweeping past Real Sociedad and Malaga with a combined haul of eight goals. The football has sharpened, the combinations in attack have started to bite, and now comes the question that will define their night: can they carry that ruthless edge onto one of the most awkward away grounds in Spain?
Betis’ midfield brain vs Madrid’s firepower
Betis offer openings. Their back line can be exposed, and Mourinho knows it. The real danger lies a few yards further forward, where the game may be won or lost.
Isco, facing his former club, is expected to be the heartbeat of Betis’ approach. Everything is likely to flow through him, the tempo, the angles, the final pass. If he finds time and space between the lines, Madrid’s defence will be dragged into places they do not want to go.
On the flank, Marc Cucurella has a different kind of assignment. His job is brutally simple on paper and brutally difficult on grass: contain Antony. If Cucurella cannot shut down the Brazilian’s direct running and one-on-one threat, Betis will spend long spells pinned back, their own attacking plans reduced to hopeful counters.
A hostile venue and a bad memory
This is not a ground that has treated Madrid kindly. Their last away win against Betis came back in 2021, a tight 0-1 decided by a Dani Carvajal strike. Since then: three draws and a defeat. Too many dropped points, too many nights when control slipped away in the noise and colour of Seville.
Mourinho is desperate to rip up that recent script. Ending that run would send a message, both to his own dressing room and to the rest of the league. But he knows as well as anyone that history in this fixture does not bend easily.
Bellingham, Vinicius, Mbappe: the cutting edge
For all the tactical subplots, Real Madrid’s game plan leans on a devastating trio. Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe are the reference points, the players expected to turn a tight contest into a decisive one.
If even two of the three catch fire at La Cartuja, the odds tilt sharply towards the visitors. Bellingham’s surges from midfield, Vinicius’ chaos on the left, Mbappe’s cold finishing and explosive movement – Betis will have to live on the edge for 90 minutes.
Yet Mourinho will not view this as a night for pure spectacle. He will demand control without the ball, compact lines, and a defence that refuses to be drawn into the kind of open exchange Betis relish. With the quality the hosts possess going forward, any lapse could undo an evening of dominance.
Madrid arrive in Seville chasing more than just top spot. They are hunting proof that this version of Mourinho’s team can impose itself anywhere, on anyone, in the league. La Cartuja, with its noise, its scars and its history, is the perfect place to find out.
