Success came with Pellegrini
Back to the sporty. Responsible for the current soaring of the “Beticos” is coach Manuel Pellegrini. The Chilean took over the club in the summer of 2020, the previous season Betis was 15th and narrowly avoided relegation.
Sixth place was enough in Pellegrini’s first year, earning the team a place in the Europa League. There Betis moved into the intermediate round as second behind Bayer Leverkusen, opponent is Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Full on offensive
These successes already attracted a lot of attention in Spain. Pellegrini didn’t even make any major changes to the squad, but only strengthened it selectively. Rather, the 68-year-old gave the team a new tactic and a new self-confidence.
At Betis he went on the offensive from the start. In previous years, the club was only concerned with preventing goals and avoiding defeats. Now it’s all about winning games. Betis has 37 goals in the Primera Division made so far this season, that’s the second-most behind leaders Real Madrid.
Fekir is the star of the team
The star of the team is Nabil Fekir, the attacking midfielder who became world champion with France in 2018, came from in 2019 Olympique Lyon. Top scorer is left winger Juanmi with 14 goals, while center forward Borja Iglesias has ten. Also known are left winger Christian Tello, formerly FC Barcelona, and central defender Marc Barta, who played for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga. The Portuguese is in goal Rui Silva. In addition to Fekir, Sergio Canales is a key part of the offensive.
With the “engineer” in the premier class?
With Betis, Pellegrini is now fighting for a place in the premier class. He is well known in Spain for lifting clubs out of mediocrity and into the European limelight. The FC villa real he led to the semi-finals of the Champions League, with FC Malaga he made it to the quarter-finals, where he just missed out on Borussia Dortmund. That’s why Pellegrini is only called the “engineer” in Spain. And who knows – maybe Betis will end up in the table ahead of FC at some point Seville.
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As of: 01/20/2022, 12:32 p.m