The Real Betis of the Chileans Claudio Bravo and Manuel Pellegrini continues to make history, this time achieving an important triumph in their visit to St. Petersburg against Zenit for the first leg of the knockout stages of the Europa League, the second most important competition in Europe.
The Andalusian team started the match very intensely, since at 8′ Guido Rodríguez scored the first goal of the match after a header. Later, at 18′ the engineer got two to zero after a great play by Willian José. The verdiblancos were thought to score on their visit to Russia.
However, the pride of the locals made them wake up and in just three minutes they tied the match with the goals of Artem Dzyuba (25′) and Malcom (28′).
When the first half ended, the Mexican Andrés Guardado took advantage of a bad start of the Russian team and scored (41′) the three to two final.
The complement did not have the intensity of the first half, although it was the locals who most looked for the rival goal. Finally, Pellegrini’s side achieved a great triumph in their visit to Zenit.
The second leg will be played next Thursday, February 24 at the Benito Villamarín stadium in Seville. It should be remembered that away goals no longer have extra value in the knockout rounds.
Claudio Bravo was not cited because he was in recovery from an injury that afflicted him a month ago when he came to play for Chile against Argentina for the Qualifiers heading to Qatar 2022.
Match summary: Zenit 2 – 3 Betis
Video via Youtube: Juice Channel
