Héctor Bellerín struck deep into stoppage time on Friday to earn Real Betis a 1-1 draw against Real Madrid, compounding the visitors' difficulties at the top of La Liga. According to the Guardian, the late leveller represents another blow to Madrid's fading title aspirations.
Madrid had looked set to collect three points after taking the lead in the 17th minute. Federico Valverde struck from outside the penalty area and, though the Betis goalkeeper Álvaro Valles managed to get a hand to the effort, he could only deflect the ball into the path of Vinícius Júnior, who converted at close range just inside the right post.
The lead held for the majority of the match before Bellerín's late intervention denied Álvaro Arbeloa's side the victory. Arbeloa, the former Spain international, has been in charge at the Bernabéu club's first team this season, and Friday's result will test both his squad and the patience of those still hoping the title remains within reach.
Elsewhere on the same evening, RB Leipzig recorded a 3-1 victory, the Guardian reports, though the result was overshadowed by a reported online sexism row connected to the fixture. The details of that controversy were not fully set out in the available wire copy.
For Madrid, the mathematics of the title race will now come under sharper scrutiny. A draw away from home against a mid-table side is rarely catastrophic in isolation, but when ambitions are already described as faint, dropped points of this kind tend to narrow the margins further still. How their rivals respond over the coming fixtures will determine whether Friday night proves merely a setback or something more definitive.