Real Betis defeated Real Madrid 1-0 on Friday night, with substitute Troy Parrott scoring the only goal and Kylian Mbappé spurning a stoppage-time penalty that would have earned the visitors a point.
Parrott, 24, had been on the pitch for just four minutes when the decisive moment arrived in the 81st minute. Nelson Deossa attacked a corner and his header stung the hands of Thibaut Courtois, who could not hold the ball cleanly. The Dubliner was the quickest to react, converting the loose ball to mark his home debut for the Seville club with a winner.
"That's a striker's job, to go in after the ball and hope it will fall in front of me," Parrott told ESPN. "In a game I might do this 10 times and it might not happen. So it's a mentality thing to just keep going in there and hopefully it comes, and today it did."
Parrott, introduced in the 68th minute, joined Betis from AZ Alkmaar this summer in a £17.1million deal, having scored 51 goals in 97 games for the Dutch club. The goal also made him only the second Irishman to score against Real Madrid, after John Aldridge's efforts for Real Sociedad in the 1989-90 and 1990-91 seasons.
Madrid, who had opened the campaign with three straight wins under Mourinho, pressed hard for an equaliser. Mbappé struck the crossbar before summer signing Carlos Espí appeared to rescue a point with a spectacular bicycle kick from a Vinícius Júnior cross. VAR ruled the effort out for offside. Deep in added time, Natan brought down Vinícius inside the area and the referee pointed to the spot — only for goalkeeper Álvaro Valles to dive to his right and turn Mbappé's effort away. Madrid argued that Marc Bartra had encroached into the box before the kick was struck, but the officials allowed the save to stand.
The defeat ended a run of 38 unbeaten league matches for Mourinho across three different clubs and inflicted on Madrid their first loss in the opening four league games since the 2014-15 season. Their final tally of eight shots on target and an expected goals figure of 3.16 illustrated a costly failure to convert their dominance.
Mourinho was candid but frustrated afterwards. "Sometimes you lose and you don't know why," he said in his post-match news conference. "Sometimes you lose and you don't know how to explain it. We were very dominant, focused, we controlled absolutely everything, with a lot of attacking play, and a lot of chances."
When pressed on the penalty incident and the disallowed Espí goal, the Madrid coach said he had not watched the incidents back and could not comment. He did suggest his players had been out-thought by their hosts in terms of game management, telling reporters that Betis had been more streetwise in their dealings with the referee, while Madrid's players were too honest in those situations. Manuel Pellegrini's side moved level with Madrid on nine points after four games.
Reporting: Guardian, The Guardian, Football Italia, Daily Mail, BBC Sport, ESPN, RTÉ, The Sun, GiveMeSport, World Soccer Talk, talkSPORT.