Coach Manuel Pellegrini was pleased that the players of Betis Sevilla in the second match of Group C of the Europa League against Sparta Prague corrected the mistakes of the opening act and won 2:1. He appreciated it also because he considers Prague to be a very good team.
“The evaluation of the match is positive not only because of the important victory, but also because we corrected the mistakes from the first half in the second half,” said Pellegrini.
Veljko Birmančević gave Sparta the lead in the 3rd minute. “After a pass for our defense, they soon took the lead. From then on, they controlled the match, we had a hard time keeping the ball. They had no further chances, but we, on the other hand, had some signs,” assessed the Betis strategist.
Shortly after Sparta’s goal, Assane Diao equalized. “Overall, the first half didn’t go well for us, Sparta held the ball a lot. We played against the reigning Czech champion, who plays well and is of high quality,” said the 70-year-old Chilean.
According to him, however, it was not a disaster on the part of Betis. “We just didn’t create anything. However, we corrected it in the second half, played more intensively, scored a goal and created clear opportunities,” continued Pellegrini. Isco scored the winning goal in the 80th minute.
“It is impossible to play at the same level for the whole 90 minutes. It is important to know how to correct mistakes. I am very satisfied with the second half, as we played against a very good team that is used to winning and holding the ball a lot. The second half was more than acceptable ,” noted the coach who led Manchester City to victory in the Premier League.
After the break, the five-time winner of the Champions League with Real Madrid Isco, the author of the difference, made himself known.
“We didn’t have any control or finishing in the first half. You can’t blame Isco for good or bad. Everyone improved after the break. But I attribute that to the team rather than individuals. Isco was much more involved after the break, finding spaces, scoring goals. That all thanks to the fact that his teammates also raised their performance,” said Pellegrini.
Thanks to the triumph over Sparta, the coach maintained a 100 percent cup balance with the Czech teams, which he defeated in all four matches so far.
With Villarreal in the 2008/09 season, he won the group stage of the UEFA Cup in Mladá Boleslav, and in the 2013/14 season, he beat Pilsen twice on the bench of Manchester City in the main stage of the Champions League.
Betis made up for the opening loss in the group at Glasgow Rangers 0:1 against Sparta. The Scottish team, on the other hand, lost 1:2 in the simultaneously played match at the Arisu Limmasol stadium, which Sparta defeated 3:2. All teams in the “céček” have three points on their account.
“It could have been worse, if Rangers had won in Cyprus, they would have had six points. Limassol is playing well and offensively, we will have to play a good game there if we want to score,” said Pellegrini.
