Real Betis suffered a damaging 2-1 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday evening, leaving themselves a tough job for their trip to Germany.
Expectations appear to have weighed on Manuel Pellegrini’s side in recent weeks and once again, they were unable to come up with a result in a big fixture. After going behind early to a Filip Kostic goal, the visitors had Betis perfectly in their sights, allowing them to counter at will.
This wasn’t to say that Real Betis weren’t finding their own space either. The impressive duopoly of Nabil Fekir and Sergio Canales were at the heart of Betis’ threat, with the two linking for Fekir’s caramel finish on the half hour mark.
All of their hard work was undone almost immediately however, as Frankfurt once again swarmed forward whenever a Betis attack broke down. A constant stitch for the home side, Daichi Kamada took advantage of this after a poor giveaway from Edgar Gonzalez.
This would be the pattern for much of the second half too. Despite the best efforts of Los Verdiblancos, their consistently threatening attacks almost always ended without incident. Open and committing men forward, Betis made themselves easy prey.
In contrast, the Germans attacked at pace whenever they got the chance and almost always managed a shot. One on of these breakaways, the sliding Aitor Ruibal conceded a penalty as his trailing hand brushed the ball. Fortunately for Pellegrini, his bet on Claudio Bravo paid off this time as he denied Rafael Santos Borre from the spot.
In a night of few heroes for Betis, it was the Chilean goalkeeper who prevented Borre from widening the margin with a hat-trick of good saves.
Betis continued to attack without troubling Kevin Trapp and Oliver Glasner’s side came away having imposed themselves both on the scoreline and in terms of game plan. Betis will once again have to rely on an away result to see them through to the next stage of the Europa League.
Another disappointing game from Pellegrini. It’s not even tactical, but rather the white flag of surrender before the game even starts.
Alex Moreno can’t go at left back so the obvious choice is the young man from Barcelona from whom Alex won the starting job back, Juan Miranda. Instead we get the 25 year-old Segunda League-caliber player Aitor Ruibal, who at his age isn’t going to get any better, playing out of position.
So do you compensate with the inexperience at left-back by playing experience in central defence? Nope, right beside him is the equally in-over-his-head Edgar instead of Bartra or Ruiz.
Sabaly at right-back compounds the problems. He’s a school-yard player, he does some good things but makes plenty of mistakes as well. Unpredictable equals unreliable, which shouldn’t be tolerated at this level. Since he has to play because of injuries, the Rubial-Edgar combo on the left-side further compounds the coaching mistakes in player choice.
I complained about Pellegrini’s sideline paralysis in the Copa Del Rey against a fading Rayo Vallecano, not making any substitutions until Rayo tied it in the 80th minute. On the weekend with 10 minutes left and down 3-1 to Atletico, no game time for 21 year-old Lainez? Who unlike Rubail is young enough to get better? If you have to carefully manage his minutes, is 2 goals down with 10 minutes left not the time to bring in his offensive skill-set, especially with the crowded schedule the team is currently enduring?
We can appreciate the qualities of the “big clubs” who deal with the pressures of the big games. As Betis approaches their big games they are starting to buckle at the knees, and Pellegrini is the one setting the tone.
The skill set (or lack of it) of the back line is awful. Betis has regressed to where they were at the beginning of last season.