He Real Betis He already knows that his rival in the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey will be FC Barcelona. The draw held this Wednesday at the Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas led to a match in which the green and white will face the azulgranas in a single match on January 15 at 9:00 p.m. at the Montjuïc stadium. There will be VAR and semi-automatic offside and it is one of the four confrontations between First Division teams in this round. In the current league campaign both teams have already faced each other, at the Benito Villamarín, with the final result of 2-2 thanks to Assane’s goal in extra time. In the Cup Beticos and Barcelona have faced each other in nine qualifying rounds, of which the Verdiblancos passed in four.
The most recent precedent was the quarterfinal match between them, in a double match, with the Beticos in the Second Division under the orders of Pepe Mel. Then the Heliopolitans fell 5-0 in the first leg but completed an exciting night by beating Guardiola’s Barcelona 3-1 at the Villamarín, with great performances from Jorge Molina, Rubén Castro and the entire team. The duel between Betis and Barcelona in a higher round was in the final of the 1996-97 season, when the green and white lost 3-2 in a very exciting final at the Santiago Bernabéu that had to go to extra time.
Before, Betis had achieved the machada of eliminate Cruyff’s Barcelona in the 1993-94 season, being in the Second Division, in a quarterfinal tie that began with 0-0 in Heliópolis and ended with 0-1 at the Camp Nou with that goal and subsequent shout from the Galician striker Juanito. Betis also passed in the quarterfinals of the 1984-85 campaign when they won 3-1 at home and lost 2-1 in Barcelona. The previous precedent was in 58-59 when Barcelona beat Heliópolis 0-6 in the first leg and ruled in the second leg 4-3 in the quarterfinals. In the same round the duel took place at 33-34 when Betis lost 2-0 in the first leg but came back 4-0 in the second leg.
In the previous campaign, 32-33, Betis won in Barcelona 1-2 and tied in Seville 2-2. In 1929-30, the one who overcame this crossing, in the round of 16, was Barcelona by drawing 1-1 in Heliópolis and winning 2-0 in their fiefdom. And the first cup confrontation between the two was in the 1926-27 quarterfinals when Barcelona won the first match 4-1 and Betis did the same in the second 1-0. A tiebreaker had to be played in Madrid days after the Catalan team won 1-0. In addition, Betis faced Barcelona in the semifinal of the 2023 Super Cup in Saudi Arabia in a duel that ended with a 2-2 draw before falling on penalties.
The first Betic reaction to this draw was that of Alvaro Ladrón de Guevaratechnical secretary of the club, who pointed out that “he is a very tough rival. Obviously there were much less difficult teams than Barcelona, especially in their field. We would have liked to play at Villamarín, but that’s what we had to do. The important thing is that we are there, that we have been in this draw and that we are going to play in the round of 16 because we have seen how other First Division teams have fallen to lower category teams. “Now, to face Barcelona with all the desire in the world,” continued Ladrón de Guevara. «Barcelona is not at its highest peak, but they have a great team. In the Copa del Rey with Manuel we have only lost one game in 90 minutes, so we are a tough rival. We’re going to want to be that way in that game too. Furthermore, we are lucky that we will go to a province where there are many Betics, who will surely support us from the moment we arrive,” he concluded.
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