Forever Betis

Málaga-Betis - live thread

I was marginally hoping for two draws earlier, so the fact that Zaragoza and Granada managed late winners counts as slightly disappointing. On the other hand, Sporting and Racing are definitely the two worst teams in the division, and it doesn't hurt to have that confirmed. Betis now just have to keep ahead of Zaragoza and/or Granada to stay up. The former are enjoying a nice run of form, but the latter only seem to beat poor teams, so they're definitely vulnerable.

Anyway, here's hoping for a positive result down on the Costa del Sol tonight. As always, use the comments for any kind of chatter you see fit - and fingers crossed for the big turnaround. ¡Musho Betis!

Game preview: Málaga v Real Betis (10pm)

It comes to something when the only hope you go into a game with is the blind sort. Or as this morning's headline in ABC de Sevilla puts it: "Trust in the unpredictable." Betis's season has been so all over the place that the fact that they've looked like they couldn't beat an egg lately doesn't necessarily mean anything, not even against one of the hottest teams in Europe. On the other hand, "clueless" isn't the ideal state of mind before a big game. We're up against it tonight, no question.

The trajectory of tonight's teams could hardly be more different. Málaga have won five and drawn one of their last six games and are unquestionably Spain's third-best side right now. Betis have drawn three and lost three over the same period, while looking increasingly nervous and tentative. Not even the absence through injury of some of the home team's key players - goalkeeper Willy Caballero and everyone's favourite ex-Bético Joaquín among them - is that much of a comfort, as the Qatari-backed club still have a wealth of talent at their disposal. Argentinian Martin Demichelis is the central defender who's impressed me most at the Villarmarín all season, 19-year-old attacking midfielder Isco has been one of the breakout stars of the season and Santi Cazorla is simply one of the handful of midfielders that any side in the world would love to have. Did I mention this is going to be tricky?

But as you all know, the single best thing about the 2011/12 Real Betis has been their ability to match the very best sides pass for pass (and sometimes even goal for goal). We can't beat Racing or Rayo or Real Sociedad, but Athletic Bilbao, Atlético Madrid and Valencia? No problem! Even Real Madrid and Barcelona needed a bit of help from referees. You can call it clutching at straws if you like, but it also happens to be true.

As I mentioned yesterday, Paulao has a twisted knee and will be replaced by Amaya, while Iriney is only fit-ish and is unlikely to replace Cañas (who might just be a better bet these days anyway). Beñat should be OK to start in the centre, with Jonathan Pereira and Jefferson Montero aiming to look as dangerous on the wings as they did a week ago. The most curious news is that Javier Matilla is in the 18-man squad ahead of Salva Sevilla, who is obviously paying the price for looking 100 per cent discombobulated in the 20 minutes he played against Racing. Skilful attacking midfielder Sergio is an interesting promotion from Betis B and worth looking out for if he gets the call as a sub.

Earlier in the day, the bottom four teams all play each other - which means even in the worst-case scenario Betis will still be four points clear of the relegation zone at midnight tonight, while if everything went perfectly the gap could end up as big as nine. But let's not be greedy; if the team comes back with a point and a spring in their step, it will have been a good evening's work.

Who's a naughty boy, then?

As it happens, I didn't choose a bad week to go AWOL from the blog. For once, Real Betis Balompié are a long way down the news agenda in Seville - what with last Sunday's regional elections, yesterday's general strike and all-important Semana Santa (Holy Week) starting the day after tomorrow - so the papers have mostly stuck to news about injuries and bland interviews with players saying everything will be all right in the end. With the public seeming to accept that Betis will probably lose to red-hot Málaga tomorrow, especially with Paulao a confirmed absentee, there really isn't a great appetite for Betis gossip just now.

So, it's easy enough to point to the most interesting story of the week, as revealed in Diario de Sevilla. It concerns 20-year-old striker Pozuelo, who, as I reported recently, has returned to the Betis B squad even though several of his colleagues are training with the first team. Apparently, this really is a punishment. What happened is that immediately after the Espanyol game, Pozuelo (who was used a substitute) came in to the dressing room mouthing off  about negative tactics having cost Betis the game. He might have had a point, actually, but he should also have borne in mind that 1) he's very junior to be making sweeping criticisms like that, and 2) it was him who gave the ball away in midfield immediately before the late equaliser. After several senior players told him to watch himself, he reportedly ended up having a shouting match with Pepe Mel's second-in-command, Roberto Rios. Not a good idea - as a direct consequence, Pozuelo has since been banished to the naughty step Betis B indefinitely. Segunda B defences beware.

Apologies...

...for the slightly sketchy service right now. It's end-of-term time in Teaching World, which means marking, reports, registers, etc - all of which are time-consuming (not to mention, as they say round here, un coñazo). I'll be back with Betis in a day or two.

A spot of bother

It was 23 days ago that I told you March 2012 "could make or break the season".  I dreamed of getting 10 points from the upcoming five games, and warned of trouble if we collected fewer than five. It goes without saying that the eventual total - just two - was nothing short of disastrous.

Regular readers will know that I usually like to try and keep my chin up in the face of adverse results, but even I'm worried now. It's not so much the team's football per se that's troubling so much as the fact that they're so obviously crippled by nerves. In both the last two games you could see them visibly settling for 1-0 as soon as they'd scored the opening goal - never ideal, but a huge problem if you've got the scoreboard moving as early as the 18th minute. The situation is only made worse if the crowd turns against the team - which it did yesterday for the first time in Pepe Mel's time as coach - thus creating a depressing downward spiral that will be hard to arrest.

So, are there any straws we can clutch at? Of course there are. For a start, a seven-point cushion with nine games left is not to be sniffed at, especially when one of the teams we need to finish ahead of is as limited as Racing. Second, we all know that this Betis side are capable of beating (and, sure, losing to) any team in Spain - even Barcelona in the last game (particularly if the title race is over by then). Málaga away on Saturday might sound tricky - especially as Joaquín & Co have won five of their last six games - but it's entirely possible that Good Betis will reappear from nowhere and banish the memory of Bad Betis (who will probably then turn up for the game in Gijón). The only thing predictable about Pepe Mel's side is that you never know what they're going to do.

The Betis coach was understandably defensive after yesterday's game, saying: "We didn't deserve to lose...Their best player was their goalkeeper and we had more than enough chances to make it 2-0 and didn't do it...I don't think we played badly, we just didn't score."

So is he, like the rest of us, feeling nervous? "Everyone inside the club has to keep calm and remember we're seven points clear of the relegation zone," he said. "Obviously you don't sleep much, but things aren't as bad as all that."

He's probably right, you know. Talking to Forza Futbol on Thursday afternoon, before the Espanyol game, I rather blithely predicted Betis would steer well clear of relegation simply because they had too much talent at their disposal. All I can say is that I still believe that - I think.

How it happened

Just count the chances...

Real Betis 1-1 Racing de Santander

You know that bit in this morning's preview when I said that if Betis couldn't beat Racing tonight they didn't deserve to stay up? Well, right now I stand by that 100 per cent. They're still seven points clear of the danger zone, of course, with nine opportunities left to secure the 10 points or so they need, but this was a golden opportunity (yes, another one) to pull clear - and they blew it once again.

In my view, the real damage was done in the first half, immediately after Roque Santa Cruz had finished off some lovely individual work from Jonathan Pereira (selected on the left wing after all). An18th-minute goal against distinctly mediocre opposition should have been the cue to go for the jugular and wrap up the points before half-time, but instead the team relaxed, allowed the intensity to drop and lost their grip on things. Racing regrouped and, always looking dangerous at set-pieces, started to believe in themselves again.

At least at this stage - and into the second half - the Betis side was still functioning well enough. Beñat looked a different player alongside (or rather just ahead of) his mate Cañas, Jony Pereira was a constant threat on the left, and Roque looked an altogether stronger all-round offensive threat than Jorge Molina had done in recent weeks. But 1-0 never felt likely to be enough, and although the chances started to pile up in the second half - especially for Rubén Castro, who had a wretched game, shooting poorly several times when colleagues were better placed - Betis, as so often, looked vulnerable on the counter-attack. All I can say is when the equaliser came - via a neat Stuani header from a long cross with 12 minutes left - no-one was surprised. Upset, angry, distraught, depressed - all those, yes, but surprised, no.

By then, Pepe Mel had made three strange-looking substitutions that seemed to make the team progressively worse: Salva Sevilla for Beñat, Alex Martínez for Pereira and Jorge Molina for Roque Santa Cruz, but as I've just noticed from a quick look at his press-conference quotes that Beñat and Pereira apparently asked to be taken off, we'll just have to put that down to bad luck, I suppose.

Positives? Well, I think the starting line-up is definitely worth persevering with, even if it keeps Iriney on the bench for a while. And Fabricio, Montero and Cañas, in particular, had very nice games. But all you really need to know about tonight's game is that when the players headed together into the centre-circle after the final whistle to applaud the fans for their support, they were showered with abuse from all sides. It's OK to lose to Real Madrid, but it's not OK to draw with Racing Santander - especially when you could have and should have won at a canter. The agony is to be continued.

Betis: Fabricio, Nelson, Paulao, Dorado, Nacho, Pereira (Álex Martínez, m. 65), Cañas, Beñat (Salva Sevilla, m. 63), Montero, Rubén, Santa Cruz (Jorge Molina, m. 76).

Goals: 1-0, m. 18, Santa Cruz; 1-1, m. 78, Stuani

Attendance: 34,121

Betis-Racing - live thread

This promises to be a nerve-wracking couple of hours. Join Theresa (I'm assuming!) and the gang for in-game agonising from 7.45pm Spanish time. ¡Musho Betis! - wherever you're following the action..

Game preview: Real Betis v Racing de Santander (7.45pm)

I always like to spend some time reading up about the opposition before writing these previews, and today there's only one conclusion I can draw from my research: if Betis can't beat this lot, we don't even deserve to stay up.

Racing Santander have about as many problems as it's possible for one football team to have - and that's even before we start on their ownership issues. They haven't won once since the season reached its halfway point, they've scored fewer goals than any other team in Primera, they have the second-worst away record, they're on their third coach of the season, and three key players are missing through injury or suspension. In short, they're terrible.

So, an easy three points, then? Uh-huh. As you will be only too well aware, that kind of logic doesn't really work with Betis. Besides, the home side are hardly on fire themselves, currently third from bottom of the "second half of the season" league table and struggling to find their game. Racing will pack their defence and hope for a breakaway goal or even a 0-0 - just the sort of tactics that Betis find it hard to play against - and, it has to be remembered, they took the home game 1-0 exactly that way.

Most of the Seville papers are predicting one or two changes in the Betis line-up this evening. Cañas will definitely come in for the injured Iriney, and it's thought that Roque Santa Cruz is probably due a start ahead of Molina, while Salva Sevilla might well replace Juanma. The unlucky Jonathan Pereira is likely to start on the bench again, but Antonio Amaya could replace Chechu Dorado - who seemed to suffer delusions of thinking he was Franz Beckenbauer on Thursday, repeatedly giving the ball away trying to be too clever. Racing will be without their first-choice goalkeeper, Toño, their best young central defender, Álvaro, and key attacking lynchpin Acosta.

As always, the key will be getting off to a good start. If Betis look sluggish in the first 20 minutes, then nerves are going to fly around the stadium like a particularly infectious disease, but an early goal, however it came, should be enough of a cure for all ills. A recent article in ABC de Sevilla declared Betis to be "champions in moral victories"; today we don't care if the victory is moral, immoral or even amoral, as long as it's real and it comes with three little points attached. Make no mistake, this one matters.

"A club with a future" (hopefully)

I'll obviously be back tomorrow for a closer look at the all-important Racing game, but in the meantime there are one or two things worth mentioning...

l The club yesterday reached agreement with the players' union (AFE) and the league (LFP) over the terms by which the approximately €17.5million owed to players past and present, plus other Spanish clubs, will be paid. All being well, everyone should get their due eventually - although it might take as much as 10 years. This might sound like rather ho-hum news, but all the Seville papers have stressed what an important step it is, with the Correo de Andalucía headlining their article on the story, "Betis is a club with a future."

And lest we forget, one of the last things former owner Manuel Ruíz de Lopera said on the day he skedaddled in July 2010: "Nobody can say that they're owed anything...Not a single euro."

l It's too early to say if the three players who picked up knocks on Thursday - Fabricio, Iriney and Jonathan Pereira - will be fit for tomorrow's game, but one thing seems certain: Pozuelo won't be in the squad. Maybe the 20-year-old is being punished for giving the ball away needlessly shortly before Espanyol's equaliser, or perhaps he's being protected from unnecessary pressure, but he's been training with Betis B since then even though Hristo Vidakovic's team don't have a fixture this weekend.

UPDATE: Iriney's out with a foot Injury, but the other two are OK. Pozuelo has indeed been dropped from the squad.

l Ex-presi Rafael Gordillo had a sensible message for the fans ahead of tomorrow's game: "We have to get behind the team and be united," he told reporters yesterday. "While it's still 0-0 we mustn't be the kind of critical fans who make a player miss a pass or get nervous. Together we have to try and make a difference to the result. The fans understand the magnitude and importance of the game and I'm sure they'll respond like they always do. For the players there's enormous pressure and some react to that better than others." Fans, too.

l Finally, Ravi from the Forza Futbol website was kind enough to Skype me the other day to talk about Betis. The resulting podcast can be listened to here. My reassuring confidence about the future might sound less foolhardy right now if Walter Pandiani had just been kind enough to blast his 93rd-minute chance over the bar on Thursday night.

Have a good Saturday night, and let's meet up again here around lunchtime tomorrow.