Kylian Mbappe led Real Madrid to a 4-1 win over Real Sociedad after scoring a hat-trick during the clash at the Santiago Bernabéu to claim their second La Liga victory of the season.
The big result did not reflect Real Madrid’s struggles at the start, with Sociedad having the ball at times in the first half, while Alex Romero saved two chances against Mbappe and Vinicius Jr.
The hosts waited until the 40th minute to open the scoring, when Federico Valverde broke off from midfield and passed to Mbappe, who cleared John Martin’s control before putting the ball with his left foot into the top corner of Romero’s goal.
Real Madrid’s lead lasted only 4 minutes, as Luka Soucic took advantage of a defensive confusion after Jop Ochieng’s attempt and received the rebound before firing it into the net of Thibaut Courtois, ending the first half in a 1-1 draw.
Jose Mourinho intervened at half-time by bringing on Marc Cucuria in place of Alvaro Carreras, before Real Madrid regained their lead in the 59th minute, after a quick double pass between Jude Bellingham and Mbappe ended with a perfect ground shot.
Bellingham continued his brilliance and scored the third goal in the 68th minute, after fighting to get the ball back inside the box and passing it to Vinicius in front of the goal, before the Brazilian returned the gift by creating Mbappe’s third goal in the 80th minute, which came with a shot that fell over Romero.
Mbappe reached his sixth hat-trick in a Real Madrid shirt in all competitions, double what any other La Liga player has achieved since the start of the 2024-2025 season, with Raphinha and Alexander Sorloth behind him with three hat-tricks each.
The France captain confirmed his remarkable superiority against Real Sociedad, after raising his tally to 6 goals in just 5 matches against the Basque team in the Spanish league, making Sociedad his favorite victim in the competition.
Despite the attacking brilliance, Real Madrid’s defensive problem with Mourinho continued, after the team conceded a goal for the eighth consecutive league game under the Portuguese (in both states), with a total of 14 goals, his worst streak without a clean sheet with the coach in the competition.
The quartet gave Mourinho an important boost at the start of his new term, especially with the trio of Mbappe, Vinicius and Bellingham making the difference, but the continued conceding of goals confirms that the Portuguese coach still has a lot of work to do to achieve the required balance.
