Convulsive friendly match in Seville. Real Betis won emphatically (5-2) in the last preparation match before LaLiga starts next Saturday against Roma, a rival that when it was 11vs11 was inferior to the local and that ended up unhinged by its hard play, that made him finish the game with three sent off, like his coach, the Portuguese José Mourinho.
In the first half, in which everything passed with a certain normality, Betis was better, but in the second one could not see great things because the game was soon broken with the continuous expulsions of the visitors.
Chilean Manuel Pellegrini’s team faced something more than a friendly match in preparation for the coming season, since there is a week left for LaLiga Santander to start and the test, against a rival of stature such as Roma who trains this season Mourinho, could leave see the level at which the verdiblanca formation is currently.
In addition, the event was also enhanced by the presence of the public at the Benito Villamarín stadium seventeen months after the stands were filled in the league game against Real Madrid (2-1) that was played on March 8, 2020, although this time only 25% of the capacity was authorized – about fifteen thousand spectators – by the sanitary protocol, but finally 7,564 attended according to the data provided by the club.
And all this surrounded by an emotional atmosphere when the figure of Luis del Sol was honored, who died last June at the age of 86 and was a footballer for both Betis and Roma, a team that arrived in Seville with more preparation space since the Italian league starts seven days later than the Spanish one.
The local team started well, pressed high and took advantage of his first set piece to conclude it with a good shot adjusted to a stick from youth squad Rodri Sánchez to which the Portuguese international goalkeeper Rui Patricio could not respond.
The good Betic start was somewhat clouded by the injury of the Senegalese defender Youssouf Sabaly, one of the reinforcements of this season, coming from the Girondins de Bordeaux and who after a quarter of an hour asked for the change when he complained of an ailment in his left thigh.
After that, the game slowed down and a Betic relaxation in the center of the field served for a Roman against and for the Uzbek Eldor Shomurodov to define very well against another of the reinforcements of the Sevillian squad, the Portuguese goal Rui Silva.
The joy of Mourinho’s team lasted three minutes, until the Frenchman Nabil Fekir got a shot with a parable from afar after half an hour that ended with the ball entering the squad of a game that went to rest with a Betis that he proposed more and a Rome that, at times, worked hard to counteract its worst resources.
In the resumption of the second half, the Portuguese coach renewed the team from the beginning with many changes, up to four in one go, and managed to draw again soon through Shomurodov at the same time that Sergio Canales also left the field due to injury (m .52).
As in the first, Betis returned to regain the advantage soon, this time with a goal from Alex Moreno in a controversial play when claiming the Roma that the Betis player gave the ball with his hand, protests that, in addition, led to the second card to Lorenzo Pellegrini and that he was sent off (m.58) and that Mourinho also ended up watching the game from the stands.
Another expulsion in the Italian box, that of Gianluca Mancini (m.65) for two yellow cards, left the game distorted in its final stretch, and more when the Dutch Rick Karsdorp saw the red. The Chilean coach also took the opportunity to make many changes in a game that no longer had a history but that could be dangerous due to the occasional injury, although Cristian Tello and youth squad Rober González rounded off the win with 5-2.
.
