Rayo Vallecano hosts this Wednesday, around 03:00 pm Betis in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals in search of what would be the first final in its history in the tournament.
Rayo, recently promoted to the first division this season, where they are being one of the revelation teams, beat Mallorca 1-0 last week to reach their second cup semi-final.
The Madrid club hadn’t been among the top four in the knockout tournament since 1982, when they did it for the first time, although they couldn’t beat Sporting de Gijón afterwards (4-0 loss on aggregate).
Rayo will be able to count on their Colombian striker again against Betis Radamel Falcao, top scorer for his team along with Álvaro García, both with five goals so far this season. Falcao could not be in the quarterfinals last week with the Rayista team because he was playing qualifying matches for the Qatar-2022 World Cup with his team.
momentous match
Rayo comes into the match after losing in the league on Saturday against Celta 2-0, but Betis also seemed to suffer from the quarter-final effort last week to thrash Real Sociedad 4-0.
The Betic technician, Manuel Pellegrini, decided to rotate on Sunday against the always difficult Villarreal and fell 2-0, although they remain on the league podium. The Andalusians gave the feeling of playing with their minds set on the transcendental meeting in Vallecas.
“We have a very important game on Wednesday and the second leg in March. 180 minutes and the first 90 away it’s important to have a good score”warned the Chilean coach on Saturday, after the defeat against the ‘Yellow Submarine’.
“Villarreal beat us but they didn’t beat us. We are now focused on getting to the Cup final”, added Pellegrini, playing down the loss and showing all his confidence in the team. The Verdiblanco team is emerging as the favorite to go through the tie, but it cannot be trusted.
Against Rayo, Betis will once again rely on the aim of Juan Miguel Jiménez ‘Juanmi’, the Andalusian team’s top scorer with 16 goals, and one of the best scorers in the Spanish championship. With 12 goals in LaLiga, Juanmi is the second best scorer tied with Raúl de Tomás (Espanyol) and Vinicius (Real Madrid) with only Karim Benzema ahead (17 goals). Author of a double that propelled Betis against Real Sociedad last week, Juanmi will try to continue his good run on the pitch at the Vallecas stadium on Wednesday.
Thursday, Athletic and Valencia they will play the first leg of the other semifinal of the Copa del Rey.
SPORTS
with AFP
#Falcao #Rayo #Vallecano #continue #making #history #Copa #del #Rey