A stoppage-time penalty miss has reopened an uncomfortable conversation around Kylian Mbappé‘s penalty miss record from twelve yards.
Real Madrid fell 0-1 away to Real Betis on Matchday 4 of La Liga, with Alvaro Valles saving Mbappé’s 94th-minute spot kick to deny Los Blancos a late equalizer. It marked Jose Mourinho’s first defeat since returning as Madrid boss this season.
Mbappé’s Penalty Miss Rate Keeps Climbing
The miss pushed Mbappé’s career numbers into focus. Excluding shootouts, he has now missed 16 of his 81 regular-time penalties, a rate of 19.7 percent. At Real Madrid alone, he has failed from the spot five times in 24 attempts, putting his miss rate at 20.8 percent, close to one in every five.
Those figures compare poorly with two of the club’s past penalty specialists. Cristiano Ronaldo missed 13 of 92 penalties during his Madrid years, a rate of 14.1 percent, while Sergio Ramos converted all but one of 23 attempts for a rate of just 4.3 percent.
The problem is not new. Mbappé missed back-to-back penalties against Liverpool and Athletic Club last season, results that fed into a wider confidence dip. Carlo Ancelotti briefly shared penalty duty among Mbappé, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham to ease the pressure, though the change did little to fix the underlying issue.
Mourinho Backs His Main Man Despite the Setback
Valles said afterward that preparation helped him guess correctly, though he admitted a slice of luck played its part in the save. Mourinho, for his part, showed no interest in stripping Mbappé of penalty duty following the defeat.
The forward arrived at La Cartuja on the back of a hat-trick against Real Sociedad and four goals in his first three league matches, form that leaves little doubt about his quality in open play. The Frenchman remains Madrid’s first-choice taker, and the challenge from here looks more mental than technical.
Madrid have little time to dwell on the result. They host Inter in the Champions League on September 8, a fixture that offers Mbappé an immediate chance to move past the Betis miss.
