Betis obtained a vital victory against Elche in a clash with four penalties, two sent off and a disconcerting refereeing performance, both by the field referee, Iglesias Villanueva, and by Jaime Latre in the VAR room. If it is difficult to understand calling the first penalty against Betis due to a slight touch from Abner to Morente from Betis, it is not very easy to understand how the VAR chief referee saw red in a Magallán hand in an action with Fekir with the 2- 0 on the scoreboard. The expulsion broke down Elche, who had a brilliant start and was later surpassed by a Betis who subjected them to tremendous harassment in numerical superiority. Elche is right in their complaints about that expulsion and they should feel even more anger after their goalkeeper, Edgar Badía, saved Borja’s penalty with 2-2 on the scoreboard. There was yet another maximum penalty in the 95th minute that Willian José became the final 2-3. A real madness.
2
Edgar, Helibelton Palacios, Lisandro Magallán, Enzo Roco, Gumbau (Raúl Guti, min. 74), Tete Morente (Diego González, min. 65), Omar Mascarell, Clerc (Lautaro Blanco, min. 74), Fidel (Nicolás Fernández, min. 80), Ezequiel Ponce (Josan, min. 74) and Lucas Boyé
3
Bravo, Pezzella, Aitor Ruibal, Luiz Felipe (Víctor Ruiz, min. 80), Abner, Luiz Henrique, Juanmi (Borja Iglesias, min. 45), William Carvalho, Fekir, Guardado and Ayoze Pérez (Willian José, min. 85)
goals 1-0 min. 7: Faithful. 2-0 min. 8: Lucas Boye. 2-1 min. 64: Borja Iglesias. 2-2 min. 68: Juan Miranda. 2-3 min. 95: Willian Jose.
Referee Javier Iglesias Villanueva
yellow cards Abner (min. 5), Enzo Roco (min. 34), Gumbau (min. 44), Machín (min. 87) and Helibelton Palacios (min. 93)
red cards Lisandro Magallán (min. 56) and Pape Cheikh (min. 58)
Betis, without playing too well, came back from the game and as a consequence sits in fifth place and, above all, puts a lot of pressure on Atlético, who is playing against Madrid. The Andalusians are placed one point behind Simeone’s team, in fourth place. Also three from Real Sociedad in the third. Betis also saw their third consecutive victory after defeating Almería, Valladolid and Elche. The bottom club in the League showed his face, but everything went wrong and he was doomed to relegation to the Second Division.
There are aspects that cannot be lost in the elite. One of them, basic and main, is intensity. Betis did not have it in a terrifying start to the game, which was very well used by Elche. The last classified in the League, in an example of faith, does not give up despite his delicate situation and put everything that Betis did not have to the shock. A point of passion that allowed him to subdue Betis in the first 10 minutes, where, in the face of Pellegrini’s disbelief on the wing, he scored two goals against a team that arrived in Elche with the intention of harassing Atlético in fourth place.
He first scored with a VAR penalty after an involuntary brush from Abner on Morante’s heel. After seven minutes Fidel scored. Boyé did it two later, having not scored since October 3. Elche, in a great exercise in efficiency, had given Betis a tremendous slap of reality. The Verdiblanco team, with Ayoze leading by Borja, entered the game after 20 minutes. He created some chance in the first act, especially through the mediation of Ayoze himself, but the Andalusian team always lacked a point of vigor and talent to overcome an Elche very well behind and comfortable with their two-goal advantage on the scoreboard .
Pellegrini met Joaquín, Miranda and Borja in the second half. Betis reacted and little by little, without despair, they created problems for Elche, heavily punished by the red card for Magallán. Borja scored a penalty against Ayoze, who was very active, and then Miranda did it with a cross into the area that slipped into Badía’s goal. The rest of the game was crazy. Iglesias Villanueva whistled a new penalty by the hand of Roco and, on this occasion, Badía stopped Borja’s shot. Still, in the 95th minute, Roco himself cleared a shot from Willian José with his hands, who made it 2-3 from a penalty to the despair of the locals and the joy of a Betis that shoots up the table.
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