Betis had the pleasure of experiencing a great European night to crush Panathinaikos and, in the process, make history by sneaking into the quarterfinals of the , where Braga of Portugal awaits them for the first time. Everything went well for Betis. For example, the brave approach of Manuel Pellegrini, who brought out two forwards, Aitor Ruibal and Cucho, who combined perfectly and who marked the differences against an orderly Panathinaikos team, also limited in terms of technical capacity.
4
Pau López, Héctor Bellerín, Natan, Ricardo Rodríguez, Marc Bartra, Abde Ezzalzouli (Rodrigo Riquelme, min. 89), Antony, Pablo Fornals (Sergi Altimira, min. 73), Sofyan Amrabat (Marc Roca, min. 62), Cucho Hernández (Chimy Ávila, min. 73) y Aitor Ruibal (Álvaro Fidalgo, min. 61)
0
Alban Lafont, Giorgos Katris (Karol Swiderski, min. 72), Georgios Kyriakopoulos, Javi Hernández, Sverrir Ingason, Davide Calabria, Tasos Bakasetas (Pedro Chirivella, min. 54), Vicente Taborda (Manolis Siopis, min. 84), Renato Sanches (Adam Gnezda Cerin, min. 54), Facundo Pellistri (Filip Djuricic, min. 71) y Andrews Tetteh
Goals
1-0 min. 7: Aitor Ruibal. 2-0 min. 45: Amrabat. 3-0 min. 52: Cucho Hernandez. 4-0 min. 65: Anthony
Referee Tobias Stieler
yellow cards
Vicente Taborda (min. 18), Kyriakopoulos (min. 54), Djuricic (min. 88), Chimy (min. 93)
The Betic fans also enjoyed differential players, in the case of Abde or Antony, whose fast and quality football found a place, who returned from his injury to single-handedly maintain all the defensive weight of the Betic midfield. The party was great because, finally, Betis took that step that was required of them in the Europa League. Fifth in the League and in the quarterfinals of the second continental competition, they reach the key moment of the course being able to turn normal things into extraordinary ones. Fighting for a title and the Champions League, almost nothing. With players like Amrabat, Abde, Cucho or Antony, anything is possible in green and white. Pellegrini also continues to break records during his time on the Betic bench.
The Chilean coach took a step forward against Panathinaikos. The coach varied his usual plan with the lineup of two forwards, , to attempt the comeback against the Greek team. With Amrabat back as the only defensive midfielder, the downtrodden Betis of the previous team mutated into a daring, daring team, with a touch of madness that demanded the clash. After three minutes, a spectacular rabona from Abde was finished off by Cucho narrowly. However, in this type of lawsuit it is also very important to emerge successfully from delicate moments. Pellistri was left alone after a good pass from Renato Sanches and Pau López prevented Panathinaikos’ first goal.
Only three minutes after this action, Pellegrini’s bet took effect. El Cucho took a spectacular shot from the edge of the area and Ruibal, pure forward instinct, went for the rebound. The Catalan, a boy for everything, controlled with his chest and scored 1-0. Betis’ plan had worked. Betis, in addition, was very dangerous on the counterattack. Each robbery translated into a race in search of the Panathinaikos area, which continued doing its thing despite the 1-0 score, well equipped at the back. Lafont made two stops before Fornals and Cucho, while about to make the second in one of his usual drives. Betis slowed down a little in the last stretch of the first half, but barely had any trouble.
Shortly before half-time, a very striking play came. Abde hit a ball thinking he was offside, the ball ended up reaching Amrabat, who took a great shot from distance that beat Lafont. The Moroccan winger seemed offside, but the VAR enabled Amrabat’s goal. Betis led 2-0 at half-time.
The second half for the green and white team was a joy. Panathinaikos did not alter the script, waiting behind, but the revolutions of the Betis players increased. They scored the third goal, the work of Cucho, after a great long pass from Bartra. Rafa Benítez’s men showed the white flag. They were unable to stop the barrage of play from a Betic team that liked each other, with Abde and Antony as daggers on the wing, with the team well refreshed by Pellegrini.
The Greek team, which had not lost in eight European games, still saw Antony score the fourth after a tremendous gallop of . Two luxury bands for a Betis that showed itself to be much superior to be in the quarterfinals and put an end to that bad streak of five games without winning. He broke it big in front of the 60,000 Beticos who lived a great night in La Cartuja.
“Betis has been superior, although there have been specific moments where everything could have changed, like the first time we had. Betis’s second goal hurt us a lot,” said Rafa Benítez, Panathinaikos coach. “The team has come out from the first minute with the idea of coming back in great unity with the fans,” stated, for his part, . “We needed more presence in the area against a team with five defenders at the back, that’s why we played with two forwards. Amrabat also gives a lot of hierarchy to our game,” he added. “Our season is going well. We have failed in the last few games and the atmosphere was somewhat tense. Now we have to show in the following games that we want more,” he concluded.
