Real Betis 1-1 Draw Puts Real Madrid Four Points behind Barca and Atletico Madrid

Real Madrid failed to come out victorious for the first time under the lead of its new coach Zinedine Zidane. The club managed to get to shocking 1-1 draw against Real Betis at the Estadio Benito Villamarin on Sunday, which multiple speculations if this was the end of Zizou’s winning streak as the Spanish giant’s manager.

Due to the injury of the midfielder Gareth Bale, Zidane choose to start the game with a 4-4-2 formation, entering both James Rodriguez and Danilo at the starting eleven. Unfortunately for Real Madrid, the manager’s experiment turned out as unsuccessful, because both players were not as accurate as they had been supposed to. In addition, several clear-cuts were wasted by Cristiano Ronaldo, Pepe and Benzema, not to mention a number of excellent saves by the hosts’ goalkeeper Antonio Adan.

Zidane expressed his disappointment with the draw, confessing that his side missed some chances to reach the final result of the match. On the other hand, Real Betis who have been struggling for some time having failed to score in any of their past seven matches, finally found the back of the net, making it hard for the Whites to win the game. The club, which is currently 14th in La Liga, had not won even a single match in a total of 10 league appearances at the field, but have now entered the clash in a spectacular manner.

The resistance of Real Betis was finally ended with the goal of Karim Benzema. The truth is that Real Madrid had more possession time and dominated throughout the game, not lacking chances of scoring a goal. However, it failed to enter more than a single goal, leaving fans of the team wonder if there are any problems within the ranks of the squad.

Zinedine Zidane, who was appointed as a replacement of Rafael Benitez at the beginning of the month, had a dream start at the Spanish grand, after Real Madrid managed to win both of its home matches against Sporting Gijon and Deportivo La Coruna under the new coach. As a matter of fact, the game against Real Betis, which was the first away match of the club since the arrival of Zizou on the lead, had also not been considered as a great obstacle for the Whites.

As a result, Real Madrid lost their first two points since Zidane arrived at the club as a manager, and are now placed four points behind joint-leaders Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

The head coach commented on the 1-1 draw of his side at the post-game news conference, saying that the team’s start was not as great as initially expected. He said that the squad had been aware of the fact that the game’s start would have been difficult and Real lacked “a bit of luck”. Still, he said that the team would follow their working plan and would stay focused on their prior goals as they intend to fight for the league title until the end.