Page 2 - Real Betis 3-5 Real Madrid

#4 Joaquin and Boudebouz almost lead Betis to a dream night

Joaquin was absolutely immense for Real Betis on the night. He chipped in with some moments of brilliance and led the team from the front as Betis looked all set to cause Real Madrid an upset.

It wasn't him all alone though. Boudebouz was a thorn in the flesh for Casemiro and Kovacic throughout the night. The elusive 27-year-old Algerian's game is strikingly similar to that of his fellow countryman Riyad Mahrez.

Boudebouz often runs into cul-de-sacs and just when you think the boy tried to bite off more than he can chew, he'll Houdini out of whatever blind alley he seemed to have got stuck in.

Firpo was excellent on the left flank as well and did not let Carvajal have it easy. It was his sumptuous cross that set up Betis' third and pushed the game into a nervous finale.

Betis are a side that is scoring a lot of goals but haven't been able to figure out how to plug the leak at the back and will need to sort things out or all their games are going to be high-scoring fixtures... the kind that they won't enjoy, i.e.

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Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Shambhu Ajith

Real Betis 3-5 Real Madrid - 5 Talking Points

#4 Joaquin and Boudebouz almost lead Betis to a dream night