Victor Sanchez del Amo has praised the defensive work of his Real Betis side as they held on to a clean sheet to defeat Athletic Bilbao on Sunday night.
Los Verdiblancos had impressed the previous week in a thrilling 3-3 draw with Celta Vigo and the former Deportivo boss was particularly pleased his side cut out defensive errors to earn them a vital three points.
“Against Celta we thought we would win the three points but we were penalised for defensive frailties so it was particularly pleasing our defence did so well tonight,” explained Sanchez after thegame.
“For us it is important to make our home ground very intimidating and a tough place to go, if we can win regularly here then our league position will improve.
“The potential of the players here is very impressive and should give us lots of encouragement but we can only achieve this by working hard and focusing game-by-game in order to maintain positive results.
“Joaquin is a huge talent and has proved that for many years, we have worked hard in training for him and Dani Ceballos to work together in midfield to help protect the defence alongside using their undoubted attacking talent.”
The 40-year-old was then asked about his decision to substitute off goalscorer and popular striker Ruben Castro with twenty minutes remaining, replacing him with midfielder Jonas Martin.
“The team is above any individuals and at that time we needed to hold onto our lead and give us the maximum to achieve the three points, and Ruben understands as Athletic were squeezing more at that time,” he explained.
Betis stay 14th in the table but moved six points clear of the danger zone while Athletic remain 7th.
