Athletic’s aim failed in a match in which they chained opportunities to easily beat Betis, so they had to settle for a draw. The punch that the Bilbao team boasted on other occasions disappeared this time, which was great for the Sevillian team. Almost always overwhelmed, seeing them come before the push of Valverde’s men, the green and white team carried out a heroic survival exercise to leave Bilbao with a smile on their mouths.
1
Julen Agirrezabala, Dani Vivian, Aitor Paredes, Yuri Berchiche, Óscar De Marcos (Andoni Gorosabel, min. 78), Oihan Sancet (Javier Martón, min. 69), Beñat Prados (Unai Gómez, min. 78), Nico Williams, Íñigo Ruíz de Galarreta (Ander Herrera, min. 69), Iñaki Williams and Álvaro Djaló (Alex Berenguer, min. 64)
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Rui Silva, Diego Llorente, Marc Bartra (Natan, min. 88), Héctor Bellerín (Youssouf Sabaly, min. 45), Romain Perraud, Johnny Cardoso, Abde Ezzalzouli, Sergi Altimira (Iker Losada, min. 45), Pablo Fornals, Chimy Ávila (Assane Diao, min. 45) y Vitor Roque (Cédric Bakambu, min. 71)
Goals
0-1 min. 51: Fornals. 1-1 min. 67: Berenguer
Miraculously, Betis survived the waves of Athletic, who subdued their rival for half an hour and gave the full-backs a very bad life. Neither Bellerín nor Perraud could resist the attacks of the Williams brothers, who changed bands to make the task of their attack dogs more chaotic. Even Djaló, the theoretical center forward in place of the injured Guruzeta, was in charge a couple of times of going back to the baseline to cross.
But Iñaki’s first cross was sent by Sancet to the post, the second, with the Navarrese two meters from the goal, missed him by centimeters. It was just over a quarter of an hour when the eldest Williams grabbed a shot from the edge of the area that hit the crossbar. The red and white bathroom was becoming a scandal, but Athletic did not hit the goal. A service from Djaló was finished off by Iñaki against Rui Silva, and even when Valverde’s team took their foot off the accelerator a little, they were able to score from a corner kick that Paredes hit the post.
Pellegrini must have seen it very raw, so at half-time he ordered three changes. He sat Chimy Ávila, booed by the stands with every ball he touched, Altimira and Bellerín, among other things, to reinforce his right wing, which was failing until then. The play went so well that, in the first approach towards Athletic’s area, Diao surpassed Yuri and Fornals pushed his shot into the net to put Betis ahead.
The game opened because Athletic advanced its lines even further and Betis began to find holes. He was able to score the second on a fast counterattack in which Agirrezabala made the save of the night – although Rui Silva also made a few -. But by insisting, by putting a siege on the Betic goal again, Berenguer tied with a header after an assist from De Marcos. Sancet had another chance to unbalance the score and Ander Herrera two in the same play. Then Iñaki Williams hit one of his runs at full speed to reach the area and leave it to Gorosabel, who with everything in his favor, failed in control and lost the opportunity to beat Rui Silva.
It was a day without aim for Athletic and that hurt them. Betis, faced with the avalanche, decided to spend the last minutes well equipped in their area, trusting that the Williams would not try much harder than they already were doing. The final harassment did not work either, although the public left San Mamés with that bittersweet feeling of having seen a team that could have scored a goal, but did not.
