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Jude Bellingham scored in the 19th minute and forced an own goal from Alfonso Herrero seven minutes later as Real Madrid beat Malaga 4-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu. Kylian Mbappe made it 3-0 on the half hour and Arda Guler added a fourth in stoppage time. Jose Mourinho’s side have won all three league games. Atletico Madrid won 3-1 at Sevilla the previous evening through a brace from Alex Baena and a goal from Ademola Lookman.
Madrid, Spain: Real Madrid scored three times in eleven minutes on Sunday evening and then spent an hour working out what to do with the rest of it.
Mourinho had made five changes from the side that beat Real Sociedad 4-1 in midweek, bringing in Trent Alexander-Arnold, Marc Cucurella, Antonio Rudiger, Eduardo Camavinga and Brahim Diaz, with Alexander-Arnold and Cucurella among those starting for the first time this season. Malaga were back at the Bernabeu for the first time since November 2017. They have never won there in 42 visits.
Nineteen Minutes, Then Eleven More
The opening goal was Bellingham’s alone. He picked the ball up 25 yards out, held off Recio, went past Rafita and finished beyond Herrero. The stadium sang his name for several minutes afterwards.
Seven minutes later he was involved again. Brahim Diaz released Mbappe, whose shot was parried up by Herrero, and Bellingham got his head to the rebound. Carlos Puga blocked it on the line, but his clearance struck Herrero and crossed it anyway — a goalkeeper own goal, the first in La Liga since 2016.
On 30 minutes Alexander-Arnold picked out Mbappe in the box and the finish was first-time and precise, into the bottom corner. Three-nil inside half an hour is the fastest Real Madrid have reached that scoreline since November 2019, when Zinedine Zidane’s side did it at Eibar with the help of two penalties.
After That, Nothing Much
Malaga were not disgraced in what followed. Rafael Rodriguez hit the post before the interval, and Thibaut Courtois made one save all evening.
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Bellingham struck the post on 55 in search of a first La Liga hat-trick and left to a standing ovation on 87, replaced by Guler. In between, the visitors thought they had a route to a consolation when Yan Diomande was penalised for handball from a Haitam Abaida free-kick, only for VAR to overturn it — the ball had come off Rudiger’s head and Diomande’s arm was in a natural position.
In the first minute of stoppage time Vinicius Junior carried the ball away on the break, played a one-two with Guler and squared it for the Turk to tap in.
Mourinho Three From Three
Madrid have nine points from nine and lead the table. Malaga have one point and sit 19th.
Mbappe’s goal was his fourth in three league matches, following the hat-trick against Real Sociedad, and takes him to 60 in La Liga for Real Madrid. Since the start of 2024-25 only Harry Kane, on 62, has scored more across Europe’s top five leagues. He has now scored against 22 of the 23 Spanish top-flight sides he has faced, the exception being Elche, whom he has played once.
Bellingham told the club’s television channel that he has the freedom to play higher or deeper under Mourinho and is enjoying it, and called the ovation an honour. A minute’s silence was observed before kick-off for the victims of the floods in Nepal.
Baena Twice at the Pizjuan
Atletico had done their work in Seville twenty-four hours earlier, and most of it inside 33 minutes.
Kang-in Lee beat his man on the right and squared for Alex Baena to finish first time in the fourth minute. Pablo Barrios found Ademola Lookman in transition on 26 and the Nigerian drove into the bottom left corner. On 33 Baena struck again, this time from outside the box after Marcos Llorente’s pass, and Odysseas Vlachodimos was beaten a third time.
Sevilla got one back on 66, Miguel Sierra volleying home with his left foot after Atletico failed to clear Gabriel Suazo’s cross. It did not lead anywhere. Luis Garcia’s side worked the ball into shooting positions often enough across the evening but never seriously threatened a comeback.
Julian Alvarez was not in the squad at all, with the transfer window closing on Tuesday and Barcelona circling. Atletico had insisted on Thursday that he would not be sold. Diego Simeone, asked about it afterwards, said only that anything can happen in football and that he says so every year, without meaning anything in particular by it.
Real Madrid 4 (Bellingham 19′, Herrero 26′ og, Mbappe 30′, Guler 90+1′) beat Malaga 0
Half-time: Real Madrid 3-0 Malaga · Venue: Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
Sevilla 1 (Sierra 66′) lost to Atletico Madrid 3 (Baena 4′, 33′, Lookman 26′) — Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan, Seville · Attendance: 38,340
