Meanwhile, Lionel Messi has scored his 400th Liga goal, in just 435 matches as Barcelona beat Eibar 3-0 and stayed top of the league. Vinicius has some act to live up to.
Madrid are lining up with three central defenders against Betis with Nacho playing alongside Varane and Ramos. Vinicius has recovered from flu, and is something of a surprise starter.
Preamble
Should Real Madrid lose this one to their similarly royalist opponents from Andalusia – or even draw – they will be at their lowest points total at this point of the season in the 21st Century so far Where did it all go wrong, Señor Triple Champions League and Club World champions? It seems, as it often did during that imperial period, that the whole thing was built on sand. Banjaxing Spain’s World Cup by appointing Julen Lopetegui now looks one of the worst decisions in football history, but it was a panic born of Zinedine Zidane reading the runes and doing one before the whol edifice collapsed. It seems Santiago Solari, similarly an ex-player, and part of the coaching set-up, is no Zizou, or even an Ole Gunnar Solskjær. Things are so bad, they are even pining for José Mourinho’s brand of macho miserablism.
Can Betis beat them? Why not? They are just four points behind, though haven’t started the year too well themselves.
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