Real Betis 2-1 UD Salamanca

If I were to tell you I'd just witnessed the best individual performance by a player in a Betis shirt for the past three seasons, I'd bet we could be here for several minutes before you guessed who gave it. So let's not waste any more time and simply invite 23-year-old Basque midfielder Beñat to step forward and take a bow. On his debut start for the first team, he scored a simply brilliant individual goal, had an important hand in the second, tackled with force and precision, ran himself into the ground and passed the ball over all ranges with Xavi-like precision. With fully 20 minutes of the game to go his every touch was being applauded wildly, and when he finally dragged himself off the pitch, well after his team-mates, I hope he wasn't too tired to realise that about half the 20,000 crowd had stayed in their seats to clap him all the way into the tunnel. (For more proof, simply read the Comments after this match report.)

The bizarre thing is, Beñat was almost unknown until last Friday. As I understand it, he has only stepped up from the Betis B squad because of injuries to Arzu, Cañas and Juande, but tonight there's no denying he took his chance with a vengeance.

The upshot of his heroics was that a young Betis side overcame a nervous first half, and a goal sadly gifted to the visitors by understudy goalkeeper Razak, to grind their opponents down with a final half hour of attacking, inventive football. In the end, the performance was probably more worthy of four goals than than Sunday's was. But we had to make do with two: the first, after 50 minutes, when Beñat beat two men and curled a precise shot from 30 yards into the top right-hand corner, and the second, 23 minutes later, when Our Hero fed Fernando Vega overlapping on the left flank and his cross was headed in with aplomb by Rubén Castro. Israel, Emaná and Iriney all subsequently missed decent chances, but it hardly mattered. The new Betis had already comfirmed themselves as comfortably the better side.

And Emaná? Nominally captain (although Iriney was visibly the team's leader on the pitch), he put in a rather subdued performance and didn't look entirely fit, but had one or two good moments and was quite warmly received overall. In fact, one thing to point out in passing was the amazingly supportive atmosphere in the crowd. Betis fans have waited so long to see these young players on the pitch, they are determined to give them every chance to show what they can do. Just moments after Razak had palmed a harmless cross into the pass of Salamanca's Perico, the Ghanaian keeper received a warm round of applause from the home crowd. The message was clear: Chin up, don't worry, we know you can do better. There's a very positive vibe around the Betis team at the moment, which is fun to be a part of.

Of course, you may already have read about the one item of bad news to come out of tonight's game. As if to confirm Pepe Mel's worst pre-game fears, Jorge Molina had his knee injured by a yellow-card tackle and will be out for at least five weeks. Ruben Castro came on to replace him and had a fantastic game, but there's no doubt Molina will be a sad loss for the next month or so.

I'm afraid I have no idea when the draw for the next round of the Cup is, but Betis will be in it alongside all the giants of Spanish football - as well as the city's other club, of course. I'll bring you news of our next opponents as soon as I have it.

Real Betis: Razak; Isidoro, Fran No, Dorado, Vega; Juanma (Caffa, min. 70) , Iriney, Beñat, Ezequiel (Israel, min. 59); Emaná y Jorge Molina (Rubén Castro, min. 36)

Goals: 0-1, min. 41: Perico. 1-1, min. 50: Beñat. 2-1, min. 73: Rubén Castro

Comments

[Joe Meemo]

If the picture doesn't load for you, click on the small dark box to the right of the first line and it will come up. Then hit the "back page" arrow and you should get the page up how it's meant to be. No ideal why this isn't working properly.

[Kent]

Thanks for that. A small example of the kind of players this club should have looked for in the past. My goodness, there are so many players from across the world who can play. As a baseball fan, I caution my friends to not discount Player X simply because one doesn't know his name yet...same principle goes here. Good stuff.

[Er Pichi]

Did Dr Calero confirm Molina's injury and say he'd be out for 5 weeks? I know listening to Radio Betis during the match they said it was either ligament damage or his meniscus but nothing was certain until tomorrow around noontime.

BTW-Joe do you need oxygen cannisters or does your nose bleed up in those seats? Man I forgot how high up the upper deck (segundo anfiteatro)is at the Benito Villamarin!

[Joe Meemo]

No, you´re right, five/six weeks is just the timescale in all the papers a couple of hours after the match. With a ligament, it could always be much longer - which would be absolutely disastrous. It sounds like it was all Pepe Mel would talk about afterwards.

And yes, I suppose our seats are pretty high up - but it's about the only place in the city you can feel a fresquito breeze these days! I thought about changing, as much for the sake of getting a new angle to the pictures I post, but I was away for the days when you could do it, and anyway we kind of like saying hello to all the familiar faces around us now.

[Bjørn Egil]

A great match from Betis yesterday, I saw most of the second period, and there was lots of great link up play! Benat was awesome! I just hope we for once can give one of our "youngsters" some playing time, especially after a showing like the one last night!
I hope there's a new Betico generation brewing! :)