Real Betis-Villarreal: Betis Sinks the Yellow Submarine to End Villarreal’s Unbeaten Run (1-0)

In a wasteful performance from Villarreal, they threw away a number of quality chances that easily could have earned them two or three goals on another night. Real Betis were not much better, though they were able to put one past Villarreal’s elite defense and see out their well-earned lead to vault themselves back into LaLiga’s top four. 

Tactical analysis and match report by Charlie Tuley.

Manuel Pellegrini has his side functioning like a well-oiled machine this season, with the players only showing improvement from their Copa del Rey-winning 2021/2022 season. Real Betis was handed its first loss last weekend to last season’s champions Real Madrid, and the team came into the Villarreal match with a chance to move into third place if they could take three points off of their opponents.

Real Betis were without Nabil Fekir and Juanmi for the match, which forced a recently-returned Sergio Canales and young talent Luiz Henrique into Pellegrini’s starting eleven. Rui Silva was the team’s goalkeeper, with Youssouf Sabaly, Luiz Felipe, Germán Pezzella, and Álex Moreno making up the back line. William Carvalho and Guido Rodríguez made up Real Betis’ double pivot, Two central midfielders next to each other. with Henrique, Canales, and Rodri ahead of them. The in-form Borja Iglesias led the line for the home side.

Unlike last season, Villarreal have gotten off to a brilliant start for the 2022/2023 campaign. They entered Matchday Five unbeaten, having only dropped points in a scoreless draw with Getafe two weeks back. Miraculously, Unai Emery’s side were yet to concede a goal this season, and it looks like the lack of Champions League . . .