Immediate Reaction: Real Madrid 4 - 0 Real Betis; Liga F

Real Madrid win 4-0 against Real Betis in the first home match of 2023. Below are my thoughts about the match.

Grid View

• Real Madrid XI
• Real Betis XI
• Substitutes

• The first half of the first half wasn’t entertaining at all. In the 20 minutes, Feller was caught offside 3 times. The only chance Real Madrid had was in 6’ when Athenea managed to make a through pass into the box to Feller who had a bit of troubles controlling the ball and didn’t manage to make a good shot.
• In the next few minutes, Madrid started with crosses. A lot of them. Did any of them work? No. But they kept doing them alright. From 20-23’ Svava tried 2 or 3 crosses that either ended in a goal kick or blocked before the ball would take off giving us a corner. After that, Zornoza took the matters into her own hands, but no one was ready enough in the box. Right after that Esther tried a cross as well from the right side that landed straight to Feller’s head, but she couldn’t get a hold of it that well to make it powerful enough, so the ball ended up at Svava’s feet who was called offside shortly after.
• Feller was seen complicating a few times, dribbling too much instead of trying a cross to Esther who was running through the center.
• 34’: GOAL by Esther (1-0)! Exactly what I said for Feller above, she listened to me and dribbled through 2 defenders to go inside the box and passed right to Esther who was positioned well in front, her shot was saved by Thalmann, but Esther’s second shot went in. Feller didn’t get an assist, but her effort is to be remembered. Glad she listened to me.

• Athenea picked up a yellow for punching Moreno where she might’ve gotten away with a red.
• There were no halftime subs on Madrid’s side.
• 49’: GOAL by Weir (2-0)! Athenea got the ball on the wing and started going more inside. Esther got ahead of herself and while Athenea was running inside and ended up way offside, Athenea’s only (and) best option was Weir to whom she passed to pick up the assist.

• Three minutes later, Zornoza’s taken corner found its way to Rocío’s head which had to be saved at the far post with great difficulty. Rocío has been on a roll and in the mood for scoring lately.
• 56’: substitution: Nahikari and Teresa in for Feller and Maite. Nahikari and Esther got minutes together.
• Six minutes later, Athenea got fouled right outside of the box, great position to shoot directly. Weir and Tere on the ball, but ultimately Weir took it and shot over. Maybe, it was more of a position for Teresa to shoot.
• 64’: GOAL by Zornoza (3-0)! Esther found Zornoza while she was running in the center and passed to her on the right while Esther and Nahikari took all the defenders with them. Zornoza got a 1 on 1 chance with the goalkeeper which she won.

• 65’: GOAL by Nahikari (4-0)! Athenea’s through pass to the center of the box found Nahikari who was positioned together with Esther at almost the same spot, but Nahikari was a bit more behind, more ready to receive whose shot went below goalkeeper’s hands in her jump.

• 70’: substitution: Møller and Olga in for Esther and Svava.
• Betis’ first chance came in 74’ when Montilla shoot from a long range but hit the outside post ending in the goal kick for Misa.
• Two minutes later, Olga makes a ground side cross to Nahikari who couldn’t control it.
• 77’: substitution: Kenti in for Athenea.
• Real Betis get another chance in 81’ where Carmen Álvarez dribbled past Madrid’s defense and Misa had to intervene.
• Shortly after this, Weir was seen walking out of the pitch to sit down. Real Madrid was down to 10 because Toril exhausted all the subs already. There was no apparent duel including Weir that could show what exactly happened, but she didn’t return for the rest of the match.
• Towards the very end, in 87’ Betis scored from a corner, but it was ruled out because of a foul suffered by Madrid.

End of the match. A nice, comfortable win.