A solitary goal from Isco was enough for the Manuel Pellegrini-led Real Betis side to secure victory when they visited SD Huesca, sealing their place in the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey.
Despite the slim margin of success against the blue and garnet team, the “Engineer” highlighted the performance of his players, particularly highlighting their defensive aspects, given the rare opportunities for danger posed by the opponent.
Speaking at a press conference, the Chilean said: “The goal was to qualify for the next round, and we achieved that. It was a match that we knew would be difficult; we met Huesca at a time when they had confidence after their last results However, I believe we played a very complete game in defense, where, apart from a few corner kicks in the first half which caused us problems, we dominated the area. defensively for the rest of the game.”
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However, the coach lamented: “We had several chances that could have allowed us to play more comfortably with a second goal. We didn’t convert those chances, and that also speaks to our merit in keeping a clean sheet without sink into complacency.”
Asked if he expected to suffer less in this match, the tactician insisted: “We came here with our XI as strong as possible to chase qualification, which was our goal. We don’t We never thought it would be an easy match, especially not playing away on Huesca’s pitch. Moreover, as I already mentioned, the Huesca team is also having a very good time in terms. of form So we expected one. close match, just as it turned out.”
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Finally, regarding the objectives in the tournament, Pellegrini assured: “We do not know who we will face in the round of 16, but the objective for Betis in these competitions is to try to win the match in the next round. Once we get through that, we’ll see how far we can go. For now, what was important was to qualify, as we did previously, and we achieved that in three matches. we aim to continue in this competition in our fourth game.”
