Real Betis arrive late to the party as they get past Leganes #2304
Betis 2 Leganes 0FT
On Friday night after the international break, La Liga returns to action as we are in Seville for a battle between Real Betis & Leganes. Between two teams that haven’t exactly gotten off to the best of starts this season. Newly promoted Leganes won Segunda División Last season punching their ticket back to La Liga. It has been a mixed bag for them so far. Only one victory over the first four matches of the season with their one win coming against Las Palmas. I’m not going to pretend to know the situation very well, but they are one of the teams expecting to deal with relegation this season. The polar opposite of Real Betis. Although they have played one less match than most of the league, they have not gotten off to a great start. They finished 7th last season, earning themselves a place in Europe in the UEFA Conference League. They had a very strong campaign last season and have consistently been in the European picture. However, so far this season they have found their struggles with two draws against Alves and Girona and then recently were beaten by Real Madrid. Those three opponents may be fairly strong, but based on the points they have collected, they are in the relegation zone,e, at least for the moment. They have played one less match. However, this is a huge opportunity against a newly promoted side to take their experience to their advantage and pick up maximum points At home in Seville. On Friday night, we would be at the Estadio Benito Villamarín with a sea of green with 48,089 in attendance to kick off the La Liga weekend as Bettis look for their first victory of the season against newly promoted Leganes.
Real Betis held Real Madrid fairly well until the La Liga champions eventually pulled away. They had some really good contributions coming from Rui Silva’s end goal as they have safe, bare hands, hopefully, to prevent any sort of surprise coming from the newly promoted side. However, indeed, they haven’t exactly clicked to start the season with a huge chance to now capitalize on that with plenty that they can use to their advantage. The inception of the match lacked a little bit of everything. In the early portions of the first half, Betis couldn’t get themselves going. To be fair, the visitors had the same problem. Betis dominated possession despite that they were finding things a bit complicated at the start of the first half. 14 minutes passed by before anything significant had occurred. In the 14th minute, Marc Roca looked to make it happen off of the free kick. However, the touch did not test the opposing keeper and what was a very poor effort from the midfielder. In the 20th minute, They looked for a reply as Yvan Neyou hit one from deep for Leganes. However, nowhere near. In the 21st minute, it looked like Leganes had opened up the scoring with debutant Sébastien Haller sticking it in the back of the net; however, Betis conducted the offside trap perfectly as there was no question that the Cameroon Striker was offsides. It was a bit unfortunate considering it probably could have given the game a little bit of life. However, It still was rather slow in the buildup to it. Not a lot of high-quality chances or chances at all coming from either side. The overall play came across as fairly flat. In the 32nd minute, Pablo Fornals pulls up from range, but his strike crashes into the opposing defense as it deflected away. Near the very end of the first half, Betis started to come to life. In the 38th minute, Pablo Fornals created a chance from inside the box for Abde Ezzalzouli. He was denied from a close range but provided us with the first chance on target thus far as it has been sloppy and flat at the start. A minute later, in the 39th minute, Sergi Altimira took another stab at it from a distance, but the lone ranger, just like the previous ones, flailed off Target. In the 43rd minute, Marc Roca delivers a cross into the box. Assane Diao strikes at a complex angle. It was a nice idea, but I can’t capitalize. In the 45th minute, Romain Perraud missed the mark on the left side of the box, and what was a very poor effort. A very forgettable 45 minutes come to a close without a breakthrough from either side.
Betis As the match progressed started To open up and create more chances as it went on. However, the balka chances were of a low quality only on one occasion. did they really appear to be within their means of scoring. meanwhile Leganes didn’t have much of the ball and didn’t do much with it when they had it. They did have a goal disallowed but outside of that have brought absolutely nothing to the table. As we are witnessing a bit of a gritty battle between two teams that haven’t shown their best thus far. perhaps The Hope was there would be some indication at the start of the second half that the match overall was going to veer in a different direction. However, it was more of the same with not a lot going for either side. It wasn’t until the 60th minute to which we saw a chance in the second half. Chimy Ávila supplies a nice ball for Youssouf Sabaly As he drags a strike at the left side that narrowly flies over the right corner probably the best chance of the evening thus far. However, it was a sign of things to come. 3 minutes later we saw the first chance on Target. Giovani Lo Celso supplies a ball in a dangerous position for Abdessamad Ezzalzouli The Moroccan follows through on the left side of the box before being denied by The keeper. All of a sudden we were starting to get somewhere in the 70th minute Héctor Bellerín delivers a nice cross into Natan he supplies on the header but collides with the opposing center back. In 74th minute there would finally be a breakthrough. Hector Bellerin cuts in down the right side near the touchline He supplies a pass through a small window Abdessamad Ezzalzouli gets the last touch sending it into the back of the net as Betis takes a 1-0 lead. The Moroccan is in fantastic form thus far this season Three goals in six matches in all competitions. In the 82nd minute Leganes looked for an equalizer Darko Brasanac gets a shot deflected from close range but it was ultimately cleared out. Renato Tapia would repossess it before striking from distance despite not testing Silva. In the 86th minute Betis would put it away once and for all. Pablo Fornals delivers a ball into the Moroccan as Abdessamad Ezzalzouli forges to save by The keeper after blasting it from close range Vitor Roque catches it out of the air off the deflection getting a touch that drives it into the back of the net as the striker on loan from Barcelona scores to double the advantage as Betis drag their feet to a 2-0 victory to start the La Liga weekend.
It wasn’t exactly a glowing endorsement For La Liga. La Liga has been excellent This season incredibly entertaining. However, this match in particular didn’t have the surplus requirements for the neutrals. It was a slow and flat 90 minutes. Eventually Betis prevailed and picked up maximum points. However, it took a long time for them to get there in the end. They did capitalize when they needed to late in the second half when it looked like it was heading for a goalless draw. It was a much needed victory for a team that was without a victory in the league this season. It will allow them to climb the table, pick up and ports at maximum points and give them a certain sense of confidence going into the next couple of fixtures. however, the reality is it was a very sloppy performance from both sides.Leganes brought absolutely nothing to the table. They had maybe three shots the entire 90 minutes. However, it’s not as if any of us could have expected them to perform at a high level. They are significantly the less talented team. They were away from home and they had very little of the ball. there should not been a lot of expected from them and probably will feel a little hard done by to have lost it in the end. Betis we can expect more from. They qualified for Europe last season. They have been consistently qualifying for European positions over the last several years. It is well within our right to expect a better performance than what we saw they inevitably get there in the end and get the results that can kick-start their season of course, however the overall performance was very disappointing. on the one hand, it can give them a sense of confidence to start picking up results more regularly. on the other hand, they only barely beat a side that was playing in the second division last season. The quality of the teams that they’re going to be seeing on a regular basis in La Liga. In most cases, we’ll have a higher quality than their opposition Friday night. They cannot play that way again against a better opponent because in any other situation they probably would have lost Friday evening. Not nearly good enough. v
Very few of the chances that they had were on target. They had the vast majority of the ball and couldn’t do anything with it until the very end. However, on the positive, they did get three points, their first victory of the season. They have the opportunity and their next match to correct their issues and grab me another three points. Betis overcame Leganes with a 2-1 victory, but we can expect much more from them. They won’t be seen Friday night.
