Mourinho has won all three, and Madrid still have not won at Betis since 2021
Three wins, ten goals and second place on goal difference. Real Madrid go to the Estadio de la Cartuja on Friday night, a ground where their last four visits have brought no victories.
Sep 4, 2026
Real Madrid have won every game they have played this season and scored ten goals doing it. They are second. That is the first oddity of Jose Mourinho’s start in Spain, and Friday night brings the second one.
Three wins and still not top
Madrid beat Espanyol 2-1, Real Sociedad 4-1 and Malaga 4-0. Nine points, ten scored, two conceded, and Barcelona are ahead of them anyway on goal difference after scoring twelve. There is no margin in this yet. Drop two points in Seville and Madrid go into their Champions League opener against Inter looking up at Barcelona.
The scepticism about the run is that none of those three were much of a test. Espanyol are 12th, Malaga are 20th and Real Sociedad have four points from four games. Betis at the Estadio de la Cartuja is a different sort of evening.
The one ground Madrid do not win at
Madrid have not won away to Betis since 2021. Their last four visits have produced no victories, the most recent of them a 1-1 draw in April 2026, and across the last ten meetings between the clubs Madrid have won six.
Grounds like this are usually a coincidence dressed up as a pattern, and five years is long enough that most of the players involved have changed twice over. It is still five years, and long enough that a draw here would be filed as a normal night rather than a slip.
Betis have already been both teams this season
Betis opened with a 1-0 win over Real Sociedad on August 21 and another 1-0 away at Valencia four days later. Three matches in they have scored four and conceded five, which tells you what happened next. Levante beat them 5-2 on August 29, and Betis had not conceded a goal all season before that night.
That leaves them seventh on six points with a goal difference of minus one. Manuel Pellegrini is into his seventh season in charge, so this is not a side still working out what it is, and it has still been two different teams inside three weeks. Nobody knows yet which one turns up on Friday.
Who is missing
Mourinho is without Rodrygo, who has a cruciate injury, along with Ferland Mendy, Endrick, Aurelien Tchouameni, Eder Militao, Raul Asencio and Thiago Pitarch. Kylian Mbappe carries the attack, with five goals in his last four appearances.
Betis are missing defenders Angel Ortiz and Aitor Ruibal, and Giovani Lo Celso has not played at all this season. Troy Parrott is still waiting for his first goal for the club.
When and where to watch
Real Betis play Real Madrid at the Estadio de la Cartuja at 8:00 PM BST on Friday, September 4, which is 12:30 AM IST on Saturday. Ipswich and Liverpool kick off at the same minute, so Indian viewers have a choice to make.