Kylian Mbappé Scores Twice as Real Madrid Beat Sevilla 4-1 at the Bernabéu

MADRID, Spain · SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2026

The Bernabéu has seen prettier wins, but few this season have said as much about where Real Madrid think they are going. Madrid beat Sevilla 4-1 on Sunday in La Liga's Matchday 9 — Arda Güler, a Kylian Mbappé double and Yan Diomandé doing the scoring, as Reuters reported — and the scoreline only tells half of it. There was a red card that never came, a goal of genuine street-football cheek, a Panenka penalty, a consolation that briefly threatened a grandstand finish, and an answer to that consolation inside two minutes. By the end, Reuters' table picture had Madrid third on 21 points, one behind Atlético Madrid and six behind leaders Barcelona, with El Clásico a week away. Sevilla, sixth on 14, left with a grievance, a goal their enterprise deserved, and a long look at what happens when you give this front line four clear moments.

The elbow, then the opener

For half an hour, this was a tetchy, even game. Robbie Ure's early header drew a save from Thibaut Courtois, Diomandé — starting on the left in place of the suspended Vinícius Júnior, as 101 Great Goals' report set out — danced into the side netting after a driving run, and Rubén Vargas turned and flashed a shot inches wide for Sevilla at the other end. Then came the flashpoint the visitors will talk about all week. Peque Fernández pulled Güler's shirt as the pair ran back toward the Madrid goal, Güler threw an elbow into his face trying to wriggle free, and referee Mateo Busquets Ferrer and the VAR between them took no action against the Madrid midfielder at all — instead booking Dean Huijsen and Sevilla captain Félix Correia for their parts in the melee that followed. 101 Great Goals called it a fairly obvious dismissal. Sevilla's bench agreed, loudly.

What happened next is why it will sting for days. On 30 minutes Diomandé picked out Güler's run and the man who might have been walking swept a left-footed finish past Odysseas Vlachodimos — Reuters described it as arrowed into the top corner from outside the box, and Flashscore's account called it a wonderful looping finish over the goalkeeper. Seven minutes later the game tilted for good. Jude Bellingham backheeled the ball into Mbappé's path and the Frenchman did the rest himself: a turn that took him clear of his marker, a sidestep that took him around Vlachodimos, and a poke into the empty net. Sportradar's fixture record credits Bellingham with the assist and Diomandé with the one for the opener, and Madrid went in 2-0 up with Courtois having earned it — his one-handed save from Lucien Agoumé's low shot in first-half stoppage time was, per Flashscore, the moment that kept the clean sheet of the half intact.

A Panenka settles it — eventually

Sevilla did not come out after the break to protect a defeat. Chidera Ejuke, on for Vargas, beat Marc Cucurella and fizzed a shot just over; Youssouf Fofana later drew another fine Courtois save from distance and Gabriel Suazo fired wide. But the decisive moment belonged to the same two men as the second goal. Diomandé deceived his marker with a turn 101 Great Goals called glorious and slipped Mbappé in, Andrés Castrín clipped his heels inside the box, and Busquets Ferrer pointed to the spot. Mbappé, who had won the penalty himself — Reuters noted he both won and converted it — clipped a Panenka over Vlachodimos for 3-0 on 63 minutes. It was, as one report put it, the dink of a man who had spent the evening playing a different sport from the defenders chasing him.

The lesson Sevilla kept teaching Madrid was to finish the job properly, because at 3-0 down they were still running. Their goal, when it came on 80 minutes, was partly of Madrid's making: Mbappé was dispossessed on the edge of his own box, Lucas Stassin set up fellow substitute Manu Bueno, and Bueno fired past Courtois for 3-1. For about two minutes the Bernabéu had something to be nervous about.

Two minutes later, Diomandé closed the door

The answer was instant and it was emphatic. Aurélien Tchouaméni fed Diomandé and the 19-year-old drove a rasping finish past Vlachodimos from outside the area on 82 minutes — Reuters called it a thunderous strike, and it capped the individual performance of the night from the winger even on an evening owned on the scoresheet by Mbappé. AllFootball reported that Diomandé became the first player under 20 — 19 years and 338 days — to score and assist in the same La Liga match for Madrid this century, passing a mark Bellingham himself had held, and its figures gave Madrid an expected-goals total of 2.24 from 15 shots to Sevilla's 0.75 from 11: the chances agreed with the scoreline. There was one more note for the home crowd to savour late on, as Éder Militão came off the bench for the final minutes in place of Federico Valverde — his return, 101 Great Goals reported, from the serious hamstring injury sustained in April that cost him a World Cup.

What it leaves behind

Madrid's run at home now reads eight straight league wins at the Bernabéu, per both 101 Great Goals and Flashscore, and the week ahead is the season in miniature: RB Leipzig visit in the Champions League on Wednesday, per the fixture listings carried with the match reports, and then Barcelona — with the gap at six points and the champions having won again on Saturday, next weekend's Clásico arrives with Madrid close enough to matter and no margin left to waste. Mbappé's ninth league goal of the season, as one report counted it, and a first-half partnership with Bellingham that produced a goal people will clip and share all week, are the form lines Madrid wanted heading into it.

Sevilla's side of the night is not nothing, which is precisely why the Güler decision will burn. 101 Great Goals noted they arrived with the club's best start to an away campaign since 2011-12, they made Courtois work in both halves, and they scored the goal their enterprise deserved — and they still lost by three, to a scorer who had a case to answer before he scored. They stay sixth on 14 points, per Reuters, and host Osasuna next in the league. Madrid march on, six back, with the biggest week of their season so far now in front of them — and with a Frenchman in the kind of mood that makes six points look very catchable indeed.