The eintracht frankfurt won by 1-2 at the Benito Villamarín in the first leg of the Europa League round of 16 and go with an advantage to Germany for the second leg, although that difference could have been greater against a Betis who came out alive thanks to some stops from the Chilean Claudio Bravo in the second half, with which he mitigated the mistake he had in the first in the goal that opened the scoring.
The Verdiblanco team, which has now accumulated five games in a row without winning between the three competitions, never found the right course to overcome its rival, in which the Colombian Rafael Borre he wasted a penalty for 1-3 and other shots only against Bravo.
The meeting in Seville was faced by the team from Frankfurt as a new revalidation of the good feelings left by beating on the last day of the Bundesliga away to Hertha Berlin by 1-4 and after losing in the previous one at home against the almighty Bayern (0-1), but also with a game that left a good taste in the mouth, which somewhat alleviated the poor record it has been in the domestic tournament .
His coach, the Austrian Oliver Glasner, used Rafael Borré as the starting point in the absence of the Portuguese due to suspension Gonçalo Patienceand repeated with Ansgar Knauff down the right wing and down the left with the Serbian Philip Kosticso the idea was not to speculate despite next week’s game in Germany.
But the Betis coach, the Chilean Manuel Pellegrini, is not given to changing approaches depending on the rival and, despite the fact that he has chained four games without winning -two defeats in LaLiga and draws in the Europa League and Copa del Rey-, his team was also offensive with men like Sergio Canales, the French Nabil FekirJuanmi Jiménez and, on this occasion as striker, the Brazilian Willian José.
The predictions about the game were confirmed as soon as the Italian referee Marco Guida gave the initial whistle, with two teams that pressed a lot when they did not have the ball and that wanted to quickly find the rival goals when the ball was theirs.
In the local formation, Canales, Fekir and a reconverted left back Aitor Ruibal began to appear, but the one who hit it was for the visitors Kostic, who received a free ball from his side and what seemed like a cross to the area was a subtle shot on goal that caught the Chilean goalkeeper Claudio Bravo off guard, who returned to repeat as a starter to leave the Portuguese substitute again Rui Silva.
Despite the fact that the goal came before the first quarter of an hour was up and there was a lot of time ahead, Betis reacted hastily to the conceded goal and had to spend another quarter of an hour for it to recover and give the game more verticality , which was enough for Fekir to get a precise shot adjusted to an impossible post for goalkeeper Kevin Trapp.
Betis had equalized after half an hour, but another Verdiblanco defensive mistake was culminated by the Japanese Daichi Kamada in the 1-2 for the German formation practically the next move of a game that entered its final stretch of the first half without control, from one side to the other and that went to rest with the visitor advantage.
Betis did not start well in the second half, to the point that Eintracht enjoyed a great opportunity to make it 1-3 when a penalty was awarded in the 51st minute by the hand of Aitor Ruibal after a cut in the bottom line of the Danish Jesper Lindströmbut Borré did not execute it well and Claudio Bravo guessed it and stopped the ball.
What this play did was alert the Spanish team, which put more intensity on it, but the Germans did not want to back down too much and also went self-confidently towards the opponent’s area, in which again the Colombian striker, after missing the penalty, had two good chances to beat Bravo although the Chilean goalkeeper responded very well.
He forgave Glasner’s formation to take an already significant lead and Pellegrini moved the bench to give his men another air and more offensive power with men like Juan Miranda, Joaquín Sánchez, Cristian Tello and Borja Iglesias.
Thus, the final stretch of the clash was entered, in which the physical wear of the two teams was already seen and also a Betis desperate to balance the score but without precision and an Eintracht that never wasted the opportunity to attack although already with few resources, as Kostic showed in the 93rd minute, who once again met Bravo to avoid a 1-3 draw.
Data sheet:
Betis, 1: Claudio Bravo; Sabaly, Pezzella, Edgar, Aitor Ruibal (Tello, m.77); Guido Rodríguez, William Carvalho (Miranda, m.61); Canales, Fekir, Juanmi (Joaquín, m.61); and Willian José (Borja Iglesias, m.77).
Eitracht, 2: trapp; Tuta, Hinteregger, Ndicka; Knauff, Jakic, Sow, Kostic; Lindström (Hauge, m.73), Kamada (Lenz, m.78); and Borré (Lammers, m.86).
Goals: 0-1, M.14: Kostic. 1-1, M.30: Fekir. 1-2, M.32: Kamada.
Referee: Marco Guida (Italy). He admonished the local Fekir (m.23) and the visitors Sow (m.25) and Hinteregger (m.75),
Incidents: First leg of the round of 16 of the Europa League, played at the Benito Villamarín stadium before 36,574 spectators, including some three thousand German fans located in a restricted area for visiting fans.
