Real Madrid drop vital points in LaLiga title race

Dani Carvajal post-match: "We didn't do enough to win tonight. We lacked that hunger and the quality in front of goal. There are still plenty of points up for grabs between now and the end of the season. The fixture schedule is very demanding. We're going to go for the 15 points that remain to win the title.

I'm happy to be back playing after inury, it has been a very tough season for me personally. We have a big game coming up against Chelsea this week. We're in the last four in Europe and we're really looking forward to Chelsea."

Madrid drop two points in the LaLiga title race. 

HT: Real Madrid 0-0 Real Betis

Free-kick for Betis. Moron is fouled. 

There will be three minutes of added-on time. 

Betis change

OFF Guardado 

ON Carvalho

Hazard plays it to Vinicius but he slips in the box. Nice play from Hazard, looking sharp.

Atlético Madrid fans will be on their hands and knees now..

We're approaching the last five minutes of the 90 now. It remains goalless in Madrid. 

Vinicius works his way infield from the left, looks up, shoots from distance but it's high and wide. 

Betis changes

ON Moron & Jimenez

OFF Lainez & Iglesias

Hazard has only played 16 minutes in the last three months. He takes up a position on the left wing with just under 15 to go. 

Madrid changes

OFF Asensio & Modric

ON Blanco & HAZARD

Vinicius chance! The sub goes on a mazy run, does pretty well to get into the box untouched. Bravo saves his timid effort easily. 

Madrid go up the other end, Modric slips it to Casemiro. The Brazilian goes back to his days of being a striker and lashes it high and wide from 25 yards. Both sides beginning to panic, shooting from everywhere. 0-0

CANALES STRIKES!!

Canales pulls his 20-yard effort wide of the goal. Betis have played well so far, created chances, but are lacking that bit of quality in the final third. 

A point for Madrid tonight would see them sitting in second, 2 points off Atlético, who have a game in hand. 

Madrid go again, this time through Marcelo. His strike goes flying wide, not even close. Zidane applauds from the touchline as his side go in search for a winner. 

Carvajal is off. He'll be delighted to get his first minutes under his belt in a long, long time. Played well. 

Madrid changes

OFF Carvajal & Isco 

ON Marcelo & Odriozola

BRAVO SAVES FROM MODRIC!

Now it's opening up. Modric strikes well from distance with a low, curling effort. Bravo gets down to it and parries away for a corner. Still 0-0 

Marcelo and Odriozola are set to come in for Madrid.

BETIS CHANCE!

Huge chance for Iglesias. Courtois makes himself bigger than he is somehow and blocks Iglesias and Betis from taking the lead. Super play from Lainez to cross to the Panda. 

Isco stands over the free-kick. Sends it to the back post, Bravo is out to punch and clear in one foul swoop. 

Joaquin had been very quiet tonight. Not surprised to see him taken off. 

Betis change

OFF Joaquin

ON Rubial

Guido has a fantastic chance for Betis! From the 18-yard line he places his effort straight at Courtois. Great chance again for the away side. 

Madrid change

OFF Rodrygo

ON Vinicius

Lainez shoots!!

Excellent run from inside his own half, keeps going and going, gets to about 25 yards out and puts his left-footed effort wide. Great run, good idea, poor shot. 

Rodrygo was almost certainly crossing there but his right wing cross/shot took Bravo by surprise. Bravo gets the slightest touch to the effort. 

Rodrygo chance!! 

His shot smacks the crossbar - the closest either side has come to taking the lead. 

The rain gets heavier in Madrid! They have an expression here: "En abril aguas mil" - which translates to "In April, it rains a thousand" It is certainly raining a thousand tonight!

Casemiro takes out Guardado. It's a clear foul. Casemiro isn't happy about that one but he clearly clips the Mexican midfielder. 

Real Madrid corner! Vinicius is warming up. 

Corner well defended by Mandi. 0-0

Superb play from Lainez down the right for Betis, he manages to hold onto the ball under pressure and win a throw-in. 

Real Madrid get us underway in the second half!

Hopefully we see a bit more football in this half!

We're just seconds away from the start of the second half!

First half stats

Betis will be happy with their first half. Madrid picked it up slightly in the second half of the first half. Benzema always dangerous but we go into the break on a wet night in Madrid all square. 

HT: Real Madrid 0-0 Real Betis

Betis hit Madrid on the break, a huge punt up the pitch from Bravo lands on Emerson's foot. The right-back crosses to Iglesias but Madrid clear. 0-0

At times, it has been pretty sloppy in the middle third. Both sides are finding it difficult to get a real hold of the game. Kroos is a loss for Madrid. 

BENZEMA SHOOTS!!!

He smacks it over the bar, but was flagged for offside. 0-0

Stats for far

Zidane posted this rather bizarre image on his instagram page yesterday. I bet he wishes he was like this right now, but he's not, he's standing in the driving Madrid rain. 

Rodrygo is fine and back on his feet. The rain continues to pour down, little else to report thus far. 

Lainez catches Rodrygo, who goes down in agony...it doesn't look like much to be honest. 

CANALES!!!

Really well-hit effort from the Spain international. It has taken Betis almost 30 minutes to get a shot in here. Just wide of Courtois' post. 0-0

The rain begins to come down in the Di Stéfano. This is becoming a frequent theme of Madrid home games. El Clásico witnessed a storm as did Eibar. It might get heavy here again! 0-0

The French forward scored two and assisted another inside the opening 40 minutes against Cádiz during the week. 

BENZEMA!!!

Bravo gets down well to parry the effort away. Benzema is in the form of his life.

Corner comes to nothing. Without Ramos in the box, Madrid are not the same threat. 

Wonderful right wing play from Rodrygo Goes, takes out 3 defenders and earns Madrid a corner. 

20 minutes in and it's still 0-0. Isco and Asensio with efforts for Madrid. Madrid haven't been electric. Betis look comfortable thus far.

Manuel Pellegrini stands just a few yards down from Zidane on the touchline. The Chilean engineer was once in charge of Real Madrid. 

Guardado takes out Casemiro! It's just outside the area. Free-kick to Madrid. Isco takes it, and it's well over the bar. Poor effort. Zidane mutters something on the sideline and is not happy with the effort at all. 

If you're only joining us, Eden Hazard is on the Real Madrid bench tonight. Since January 30 he has only played 16 minutes, against Elche on March 13.

Marco Asensio shoots over for Madrid - first real chance so far!

Carvajal has started the game well. Lucas Vázquez couldn't have filled in any better for the Spaniard but Zidane will be delighted to have him available after Vázquez was then ruled out for the rest of the season through injury. 

Joaquin plays a 40-yard diagonal, hoping to pick out Lainez but it's hit too hard and goes out of play. 0-0

Some nice Betis play with Joaquin and Canales combining. There is plenty of quality in this Betis side. Canales will be closely watched by Madrid's midfield three tonight. Everything goes through him. 

Both teams have had their spells on the ball in the opening 5 minutes. Neither are dominating. 

Betis haven't lost in any of their previous three visits to Real Madrid. Two draws and one win. 

Betis are in good form coming into this one, currently sixth in LaLiga and going strong under former Madrid boss Pellegrini.

Dani Carvajal starts at right-back tonight for Madrid for what is his first start in months after being sidelined through injury. 

We're expecting an open game tonight!

Early free-kick to Betis. Canales over it. Miranda crosses but it's headed away by Asensio. 

Betis are in their famous green and white stripes, black shorts and black socks.

Real Madrid are playing from left to right as we watch it.

We're underway!

The Real Betis XI

A reminder of the XIs

The players are in the tunnel and ready to make to their way onto the pitch at the Di Stéfano.

Madrid players warm up ahead of LaLiga clash

Score prediction:

We're predicting a narrow win for Real Madrid tonight: 2-1

We're just over 10 minutes away from kick-off in Madrid!

REAL MADRID

UEFA will not kick Real Madrid out of this season's Champions League

UEFA's Executive Committee held a video conference earlier this week to discuss some of the final details relating to this summer's rescheduled Euro 2020 but members also dealt with the issue of the European Super League and whether to punish the projects ringleaders, Real Madrid and Juventus. For the moment, neither Madrid nor Juve will face a ban, although UEFA plan to study the case in greater depth before making a decision. "UEFA's Executive Committee received updated information regrading the latest developments relating to the so-called 'Super League', including the options open to UEFA and the steps which they are considering to take".

It was decided that Real Madrid will not be expelled from the current edition of the Champions League. The same applies for the other semi-finalists Manchester City and also Chelsea,  Arsenal and Manchester United who will remain in this year's Europa League. The five clubs were among the 12 who announced they would be breaking away to form a new, elite tournament without UEFA's involvement.

Full story

Zidane hands starts to Carvajal, Isco and Rodrygo

Manuel Pellegrini names his Real Betis XI 

Real Madrid team news

Dani Carvajal starts for Real Madrid after months on the sidelines.

Betis fighting for Europa League place

Betis travel to take on Madrid in sixth position on 49 points in LaLiga (14 wins, seven draws and 11 defeats from 32 matches). They have only lost once since the start of February.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Florentino Pérez: "Either we do something soon or a lot of clubs will go bankrupt"

In an exclusive interview in AS, Florentino Pérez, Real Madrid president, defends his project for European football: “Only clubs backed by a state or a multimillionaire will survive”.

Florentino Pérez (Madrid, 1947) has been the president of Real Madrid for nearly 20 years. He saved the club from serious economic problems when he took over at the Bernabéu in 2000 and put the club on the road to the multinational giant it is today with the ‘Gálacticos’ project. Now, he’s searching for a new plan that will get football out of the crisis in which it finds itself, aggravated by the pandemic. And he’s ready to fiercely defend his ideas…

Full interview

Super League failure could halt Real Madrid move for Mbappé

Florentino Pérez launched a message of optimism about his signing on El Chiringuito but was rather more pessimistic two days later on El Larguero.

The optimism shown by the president on El Chiringuito changed dramatically two days later, when he appeared on Cadena SER's El Larguero radio program. Host of the show, Manu Carreño, asked him if it was possible to sign big stars like Mbappé or Haaland without the Super League going ahead: "It will not happen without the Super League. Neither for Madrid nor for anyone else," he said. 

Read the full story

Betis XI vs Real Madrid

Real Madrid XI vs Betis

Real Madrid in LaLiga title race

Real Madrid will be looking to clinch three more points against Real Betis on Saturday as the title race heats up in LaLiga. 

Zinedine Zidane’s men go into the match after convincingly beating Cádiz 0-3, while they also have an eye on Chelsea, as they are playing against the English team next week in the Champions League semi-finals.

The clash against Betis takes place after quite a dramatic pitch off the field, with the club's president Florentino Pérez launching, defending and subsequently losing the European Super League project.

Meanwhile, the visitors are in sixth position on 49 points (14 wins, seven draws and 11 defeats from 32 matches), although they have only lost once since the start of February.

Betis squad for trip to Madrid

Manuel Pellegrini speaks ahead of Real Madrid clash

The former Real Madrid boss spoke about his side's chances of qualifying for Europe.

Betis make the trip north to the Spanish capital

Real Madrid squad for Betis clash

REAL MADRID

Real Madrid vs Real Betis: Hazard back in squad for LaLiga clash

Eden Hazard has returned to the Real Madrid squad for Los Blancos' LaLiga clash with Real Betis on Saturday (3pm EDT, 9 pm CEST).

Hazard could make first Real Madrid appearance in a month and a half

Hazard, 30, has not featured for Madrid since suffering a calf strain after coming on as a late substitute in a 2-1 home league win over Elche in mid-March.

Real Madrid team news

REAL MADRID-BETIS

Zidane: "It's our right to play the Champions League, it's madness"

Zinedine Zidane faced the media ahead to today's league clash with Betis at the Di Stéfano.

"Betis are a good side. They've come here and beaten us before. We'll need to be at our best to take all three points".

Full pre-match press conference.

LALIGA

Real Madrid vs Real Betis: times, TV & how to watch online

Real Madrid will be looking to clinch three more points against Real Betis on Saturday as the title race heats up in LaLiga. If you want to tune in from the US, your best bet is Fanatiz. The game kicks off at 3pm EDT on Saturday 24 April.

Los Blancos are sitting second in the standings on 70 points, three behind Diego Simeone’s Atlético Madrid at the top and two ahead of fellow challengers FC Barcelona, who have one game in hand.

All the info you need to know on how and where to watchReal Madrid host Real Betis at the Alfredo Di Stéfano stadium (Madrid) on 24 April at 3pm EDT / 9pm CEST.

Real Madrid vs Real Betis live: welcome

Hello and welcome to AS English's live coverage of this LaLiga fixture as Real Madrid host Real Betis at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano in Madrid. Kick-off is at 21:00 CEST.