Real Madrid put on a statement performance at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday, beating Real Sociedad 4-1 with Kylian Mbappe scoring a hat-trick to send Xabi Alonso's side to the top of the early La Liga table.
Match result
The scoreline tells its own story. Mbappe was the headline act yet again, taking his tally for the young season to a run that has kept pace with anything he managed in his first year at the club, while Real Sociedad's response amounted to little more than a late consolation. Jude Bellingham was central to the afternoon as well, setting up two of the four goals and continuing to look like a player who has fully found his rhythm in midfield rather than out wide, where he spent stretches of last season. For a Real Sociedad side that had hoped to arrive at the Bernabeu with some defensive discipline after a mixed start of their own, the gulf in quality was obvious inside the first half hour.
How it happened
Madrid did not need long to assert control. Mbappe's movement in behind the Sociedad backline was the through-line of the whole match, and once he had his first goal on the board the game opened up in the home side's favour. Bellingham's passing range stretched the visitors from side to side, and the front three combined with the kind of directness that has become the trademark of Xabi Alonso's side early in his second full season in charge. Real Sociedad, managed with an eye on containing Madrid's transitions, simply could not cope with the pace of the attack once the hosts found their groove after the opening exchanges. By the time Mbappe completed his treble, the result was no longer in doubt, and the Basque side's late reply did little more than take some gloss off the scoreline for the travelling supporters.
It was the kind of victory that will worry the rest of the division. Madrid have now shown, in back-to-back weeks, that they can win games with control in midfield as much as with raw pace on the counter, which was often the story of their attacking play last term. Sociedad, for their part, will need to regroup quickly, because a defence that leaked four at the Bernabeu is a defence that needs answers before the fixtures get any tougher.
Standings impact
A result like this does more than settle three points — it sends a signal. Real Madrid moved to the summit of La Liga on the back of the win, putting pressure on Barcelona and Atletico Madrid to respond in their own matches this week. Two wins from two to open the campaign, both with goals to spare, is exactly the kind of start Alonso will have wanted after a summer in which the club's attacking options were scrutinised heavily. For Real Sociedad, the defeat is a reality check early in the season. They arrived in the capital with ambitions of pushing for a European spot again, and instead they leave with a reminder of how far the gap to the traditional top of the table can still stretch on a bad afternoon.
What's next
Attention now turns to how both sides respond. Real Madrid will want to carry this form into their next league fixture and keep pace at the top, with rotation options and squad depth likely to be tested as the calendar thickens with European football on the horizon. Real Sociedad, meanwhile, face a quick turnaround to shore up a defence that was picked apart far too easily, with their coaching staff almost certainly reviewing exactly how much space Mbappe and Bellingham were afforded through the middle. If there's a broader theme so early in the 2026-27 season, it's that Madrid look ominously sharp in the final third, and every team left on their fixture list will have taken note of what happened at the Bernabeu this week.
