Sometimes I have the feeling that the Betis players go out to the Benito Villamarín pitch this season with earplugs. They jump into the green with blindfolds. That will be it. Only in this way can it be explained that Pellegrini’s demoralized team does not manage to knock down and control any of its rivals in this new tournament, let alone a good part of the match, which would be a chimera; But we do miss that tenacious and partial dominance that once existed and that was enough to secure the proposed objectives. Prague, Rangers, Dinamo, Legia, Copenhagen. They have a choice, because it is something truly bloody when we talk about Europe and it is a worrying drift that the club takes in this sense, which is 27th ranked out of 36 teams in the third competition of the Old Continent. Very far from what corresponds to it by history and by entity. And for beticism. Because yesterday there were more than 45,000 people – which you know is a low number for what that stadium has accustomed us to, but clearly exceptional considering that it was Thursday – who thought one more day that it was D-Day in the one that Betis would give that blow on the table that eliminates any speculation about what image it really wants to have in this competition to which it has cost so much to reach month after month and which it directly despised in its first serious contact in Warsaw. Or yesterday at Villamarín, with an error that if it had not arrived through Bellerín, it would have been through the place of another surname. Let him squander the stain of those who disbelieve in a group that is capable of doing much more than what it shows when playing with opponents from its own continent. We must ask this Betis for more, much more than that position that does not respond to the sporting potential that this squad should have. Illusionists will be those who now make us believe that the group will do something different against Celje or Mladá Boleslav, the intimidating Petroclub or the very dangerous HDK to what Betis has been doing in the first two days of the league phase. Because at the moment there are few arguments to cling to: Llorente, perhaps, who called his people to give thanks at the end. The first half of Cardoso and Altimira. Or the deafening noise of the stands trying to fool Diks when he went to pitch. With that they would earn stakes. The absence of competitive tension in many lines has greatly weighed down a squad that cannot explain what is happening, why without Isco and Lo Celso it is so difficult to give the signs of a team in Europe that was demonstrated in the league in Pamplona so few days ago . From theory to practice there is a lot, too much. That’s why his wise fans brought out such a typho in the stands of those who never get bored: ‘A sacred oath: defend it with honor.’ If my lungs were green and white, I would have waited until the end of the match to take it out again and walk it through all the stands so they could see it clearly. Take it first thing in the morning to the sports city today. Because nothing is more accurate than a message that at minute one was a flag of ambition, and that in the nineties would have served as a lament in the face of a new opprobrium in Europe. Pellegrini errs, by the way, once again looking for excuses where there are none. He managed to emphasize in the subsequent press conference that Copenhagen had not created a chance against them, trying to justify that the defensive version was enough to convince the Danish team: «We played with two important rivals in their leagues; one that beat us from a corner and this one, which tied us with a penalty.” They neither won nor convinced, and now it is understood that Betis were not able to get past the tie. That discursive current, furthermore, can even be dangerous, I understand, because if you don’t know how to explain how to accommodate so many rivals who theoretically are not capable of reaching the goal, no one wants to think about what would have happened to Betis yesterday if they had arrived. as a trio called Griezmann, Julián Álvarez and Sortloth arrive enraged. That message is inversely proportional to the claim of ambition that must be instilled in every mind that takes to the field to defend the green and white with honor. Especially in Europe. Swear it if necessary.
#Ignacio #Liaño #Bernal #Defend #honor #remember #Europe
