Real Madrid 4-1 Sevilla: Wonder Goals and Elbow Fury

A week before El Clásico, Real Madrid put four past Sevilla at the Santiago Bernabéu with goals worth replaying for days. Sevilla, though, will replay something else entirely: the moment Arda Güler escaped a red card minutes before he opened the scoring in a 4-1 defeat they insist should have looked very different.

Midway through the first half, Güler appeared to catch Peque Fernández in the head with an elbow off the ball. The visitors demanded a straight red. VAR never looked at it, and the incident has framed the whole night.

Güler escapes punishment and strikes for Real Madrid

The opener arrived on 30 minutes, and it was beautifully made. Jude Bellingham launched a quick counter-attack and found Yan Diomande on the left. Diomande cut the ball back to the edge of the area, and Güler bent a first-time left-footed shot from 16 metres into the far top corner.

It was his second league goal of the season in nine appearances. For Sevilla, the quality was beside the point. Critical columnists in the Spanish press went further than the visitors, arguing that the unpunished elbow tipped the match decisively in Madrid's favour.

José Mourinho was having none of it. "No one has managed to make me see what they say has happened; I do not have a single image," the Real Madrid manager said.

Mbappé turns Bellingham's backheel into a masterpiece

Seven minutes later came the goal of the night. Diomande released Bellingham, whose backheel found Kylian Mbappé on the edge of the box. Mbappé spun a full 360 degrees past Kike Salas, skipped beyond another defender, rounded Odysseas Vlachodimos and rolled the ball into an empty net.

Sevilla had a grievance here too, protesting that Ibrahima Konaté fouled Robbie Ure in the build-up. Madrid went in 2-0 up, and the visitors went in feeling robbed twice over.

On 63 minutes Mbappé was brought down inside the box by Andrés Castrín and took the penalty himself, chipping a Panenka down the middle. That makes nine league goals in nine appearances, and he has now scored in three of Madrid's last six league games. A player whistled by his own supporters a week earlier left to a standing ovation when he was substituted in the 85th minute.

Sevilla strike back before Diomande restores order

Sevilla never stopped pressing, and on 80 minutes it paid off. They forced Mbappé into a turnover near the box, Lucas Stassin squared for Manu Bueno, and Bueno took two touches inside before drilling a low shot inside the far post. Sevilla have now scored in each of their last nine league games, 14 goals in all, and five shots on target from 35% of the ball shows they were dangerous whenever they had it.

Any thought of a comeback lasted two minutes. Aurélien Tchouaméni switched play to Diomande in the left channel, and the winger drove inside on his own before hammering a shot into the top corner. It was his second league goal of the season, sealing a night on which he had already set up the opener.

Mourinho was blunt about what he has seen from the summer signing: "Instead of playing with the number 25 on his back, he's playing with the 125 they paid for him." Diomande only started because Vinícius Júnior began a four-match domestic ban. The Spanish press credited him with giving the side defensive balance and direct attacking threat, to the point that Madrid did not miss Vinícius.

The reshuffle went further than the left wing. Mourinho used Federico Valverde as an attacking right-back, paired Güler with Tchouaméni in midfield and handed Endrick his first league start of the season on the right. Madrid had 65% possession and 15 shots, eight of them on target. Oddly, all that control produced only one corner, against Sevilla's two. Madrid were not camped in the box. They kept the ball and then broke quickly when the chance came.

Real Madrid cut Barcelona's lead before El Clásico

The win is Madrid's third in a row in all competitions. It lifts them to third on 21 points and cuts the gap to leaders Barcelona back to six before the trip to Camp Nou. They have scored in each of their last five league games, 13 goals in that run.

There was another lift late on. Éder Militão came off the bench to a standing ovation for his first minutes in nearly six months, after the serious hamstring tear he suffered on April 21.

"We have the Champions League on Wednesday, we'll go step by step, and then comes Barça — it's a very important week for us," Dean Huijsen said. Mourinho pointed to how new this group still is: "We played a great game... we are a team and we work to improve, we've only been together for a very short time."

Sevilla stay sixth on 14 points and have now gone three league games without a win. Their attack keeps scoring, but the results are slipping. They head home with a sense of injustice about the elbow, and that argument will not end with this result.

For Madrid, the questions are now about the Clásico. Can this reshaped side, with Diomande in for Vinícius and Güler in midfield, carry the same fluency to Camp Nou?