Ernesto Valverde desperate in the bench area to see how his players forgave again and again against Rui Silva’s goal with the exception of Alex Berenguer’s goal, he noted in the press room that “Sometimes in football a goal is scored out of nowhere and other times you have very clear chances and you don’t manage to convert. With the scoring chances and the play we had in the first half without being able to decide the score for our side, the game was left open and in the second half they scored against us, in addition to having options for 0-2, but for Our part has been a great game and we must continue.”
“We have to congratulate ourselves for the game we played,” claimed the red and white coach, who pointed out that “the team was very tired after the game because we had to go against the flow and push hard until the end. If we played like this until the end of the championship we would win many games.” Questioned about the good performance of Álvaro Djaló during the first 45 minutes, Valverde indicated that “I hope it is not the best and he can play even better, because he can do it and he can also play in several positions, generating uncertainty for the rival. In that sense it has been very good.”
Regarding the absent Gorka Guruzeta and Mikel Jauregizar, the one from Viandar de la Vera revealed that “in both cases it was a lumbar problem. Jauregizar came with some discomfort during the week and we decided to dose him a little, while Guruzeta’s troubles were on Saturday and we prefer not to force either of them by having two more games this week.” Valverde once again praised Iñaki Williams, who “finished very well. The last ten minutes I was quite tired, but I had a window left to make the changes and I saw that Prados was doing very tight, so when making the fourth change I forced myself to make the fifth to maintain depth on the right wing for From Marcos.”
Regarding the scoring opportunity in which Iñaki decided to finish without enabling Javier Martón, Valverde stated that “I have not seen the pass too clearly and he trusts a lot in the shot he has. He played a great game and it is good that the forwards have that ambition to score.”
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Aitor Martínez’s notes: Iñaki Williams, work without a prize
Aitor Martínez
Pellegrini, relieved
The Betis coach, Manuel Pellegrini acknowledged that “we had a first half in which Athletic was much superior and had many scoring chances. Playing on Thursdays takes its toll, we did it in the Cup and we came to play against an opponent who had had all week to prepare for the game and the physical intensity was different, but in the second half we were better. It has been a game that I have had to watch from the other side several times this season, so for us it is a very valuable point against a great team in a very difficult stadium.”
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Oscar Gonzalez
Senegal
