Toni Kroos waved goodbye to the Santiago Bernabeu in his last appearance at the club's home ground as his 10-year-long stay at Real Madrid drew to a close with a goalless draw against Real Betis.
Despite not ending with the desired result for either Kroos or the rest of Carlo Ancelotti's side, the 0-0 draw had no impact on either's final position in the league standings with both already sealed in their places prior to the game.
The draw for Real Madrid saw them extend their unbeaten run in La Liga to 32 games, the longest run without defeat that the division has ever seen, and took them to 95 points for the season, their highest since reaching the coveted 100 under Jose Mourinho in 2011-12.
Real Betis were also already guaranteed their place in seventh, earning qualification to the Europa Conference League, after their loss to Real Sociedad last time out made them unable to move into sixth.
The game showed signs that neither side have anything at stake with a tempo much lower than both sets of fans would have been used to over the course of the season.
Despite the lower tempo and no goals being scored, there were plenty of opportunities throughout the game that saw both sides come close to an opening goal, with Real Betis twice having the ball in the net before being disallowed.
Rodrygo had the first big chance of the match when he was played through into the opposition box after 15 minutes, cutting onto his right foot before curling his effort wide of the top right corner.
From the resulting goal kick, Real Madrid came close again as Francisco Vieites passed straight to Eduardo Camavinga and eventually found its way to Vinicius Junior in the box, with the Brazilian trying to round the keeper.
Vieites was able to sweep the ball away from Vinicius but only as far as Ferland Mendy, whose shot towards goal was blocked on the line by the retiring Sokratis.
Rodrygo once again was involved in the action after 33 minutes when he shimmied past two defenders before pulling the ball across the box, meeting Vinicius who tried to backheel into the goal, but once again the keeper was equal to it.
Betis then had a string of chances that saw them come close to an opener, first through Hector Bellerin's free header that went wide of the goal and then the first of the two strikes to be disallowed.
Marc Roca's free kick caught Thibaut Courtois out at the front post with the keeper diving to punch clear, but his punch deflected as far as Johnny Cardoso inside the six-yard box, controlling on his thigh before smashing into the roof of the net. A VAR check looked at a potential offside and handball, eventually resulting in the goal being ruled out for an offside call.
The second half saw fewer chances of note take place with only a handful of shots looking troubling, with the first coming on the hour mark as Kroos's corner was missed by the keeper with the ball being turned towards goal, but Bellerin was there to turn it wide.
From the resulting corner, Betis quickly got on the attack with Juan Miranda and Ayoze Perez linking up down the left, culminating in Miranda being played through and driving a shot across goal, but Courtois brilliantly saved.
Four minutes later and Betis once again had the ball in the net, this time thanks to Willian Jose's toe-poked effort, but an offside decision denied Manuel Pellegrini's team for the second time.
The remaining 30 minutes saw no real chances with the highlights seeing Nacho Fernandez depart, in what could be his final appearance at the Bernabeu with his future yet to be decided, and Kroos eventually being taken off three minutes from time to a standing ovation from the fans.
Kepa Arrizabalaga was also brought on for his final appearance as his loan spell comes to an end, while Luka Modric may have played his final La Liga game with his contract yet to be extended.
While nothing was on the line with both sides being sealed in their positions, Ancelotti will be far from pleased with the performance in his team's final game before the upcoming Champions League final. body check tags ::
