Immediate Reaction: Real Madrid 5 - 1 Real Betis; Liga F

Real Madrid faced Real Betis in the first matchday of Liga F - in the match that was postponed since the beginning of September due to a strike. Las Blancas defeated verdiblancas with a whopping 5-1. Below are my views on the match.

Grid View

• Real Madrid XI
• Real Betis XI
• Bench

• It was almost an entirely different lineup from the game against Tenerife last Sunday. Ivana was back for the first game since last season, replacing Rocío in the line-up. Svava also took Olga’s spot on the LB, and Kenti started on RB. Maite replaced Zornoza to play alongside Teresa and Toletti in midfield. Feller lead the attack with Athenea and Linda on the wings.
• The match started off very strong. In the first minute of the match Real Madrid got a corner kick.
• 2’: GOAL by Maite Oroz (1-0)! After a failed clearance, Oroz took the ball that landed at her feet and shot with full power. It looked like Vizoso would’ve caught it but the ball slipped from her fingers and it wandered into the net.

• There aren’t a lot of specific things to point out from the first half but one of them was definitely the amount of times there was an offside call. In the first 45 minutes alone, the referee signaled offside 9 times - 4 for Real Madrid and 4 for the verdiblancas. It’s not surprising that a couple of them were actually onside. Real Betis would go up at times in counter attacks, mostly because Las Blancas seemed to have liked to lose the possession at times to recover it soon enough. However, the guests didn’t get to do many concrete things, managing only 3 shots in the first half out of which none were on target. Real Madrid, on the other side, had much more, and 5 of them were on target.
• Surprisingly enough, there was a triple change at halftime: Raso, Rocío and Zornoza replaced Maite, Ivana and Teresa. Now, it’s not quite clear why has Toril decided on this, but Ivana’s substitution was most probably injury prevention. For the other two subs, it was for a game plan change. With Maite off, Raso replaced Linda on the wing while Linda joined Feller in the middle, taking that #10 role after Maite. The game sure did get interesting after this change, at least by looking at the scoreline. Let’s first go through all the remaining goals.
• 53’ GOAL by Hayley Raso (2-0)! The Aussie got her first goal in the white shirt thanks to Athenea’s pass from the left side after running through a good chunk of the field.

• 59’ GOAL by Naomie Feller (3-0)! Only six minutes after the last goal, Feller took a daring shot from a distance after noticing enough space between the goal and the goalkeeper to chip that ball in.

• 64’ GOAL (4-0)! Own goal by Paula Perea in an interesting array of events inside Betis’s penalty area. The freekick taken from the left side by Toletti perfectly landed to Rocío’s head whose header attempt was saved on the goal line, however with the commotion the defenders of Real Betis had created in front of the goal, the ball bounced off into the net from one of their own.

• 76’ GOAL by Signe Bruun (5-0)! After Toletti’s play in the center of the area, she had no other choice but to send it to the right where Athenea was who then pushed it back to the center. Bruun, who replaced Linda at 63’, was waiting there to make it 5-0.

• In the added time, 90+2’, Tiffany Cameron took a daring shot from the left side of Real Madrid’s defense sending the ball into the far corner of the net. That was Real Betis’s 4th shot and only one on target, and it managed to ruin the idea of ending the game on a clean sheet for Las Blancas.
• There was one more sub - recently promoted Carla Camacho replaced Feller in 71’. This was her first official match for Real Madrid as a member of the first team. The 18-year-old operated as a second center forward who operated wide, alongside Bruun who was positioned more centrally. Camacho offered good 20 minutes on pitch, even though the game had already died down.
• The winning streak continues after which Real Madrid sits first on the table for the time being, winning 9 out of 9 possible points.