Manuel Pellegrini has assured this Thursday that Friday's game with Getafe is taken as “a small revenge” after in the first round – when they lost 3-0 at the Coliseum – they completed one of the worst performances of the season. “It is true that the game against Getafe there was one of the worst, we played very badly, as well as against Athletic there, but we already vindicated ourselves here with Athletic in the Cup. We do take the match as a small revenge but Above all, we are thinking of not letting points slip away at home regardless of the opponent and the moment they arrive. Against Villarreal we entered with confidence despite the setbacks with Athletic and Barcelona. We are more stable and that is what we have to continue to demonstrate. Now we have to try to maintain a regularity and go game by game ”.
Getafe arrives in one of the worst moments of recent times and with coach, Bordalás, questioned and sanctioned, so he will not be able to sit on the bench, although Pellegrini does not believe that these factors can benefit his team. “I do not think that this could affect Betis, it will affect us to the extent that we cannot play a good game, we know that they play at the limit of the regulation, that all balls are conflicting with them. Bordalás has done well these last four years, but all teams go through bad spells at some point and that does not detract from the work they have done. We have to know that we are going to face an important team. The person in charge is the referee to decide to what extent the teams go outside the regulation or not. I think that Betis is not going to favor what happens in the opposing team, what we do will favor us. Taking advantage of other things I don't think is correct ”.
Pellegrini also spoke of Fekir's reunion with the goal -after more than a year without scoring on play- and his good form. “It would be ideal if he could give us a lot of goals. Last year he scored a significant number of goals, but he is not a scorer. He is the first concerned, but the goals come from the team's work. Nabil is aware of what he does, what he needs to improve, and is always available to improve his game. When you told me a couple of months ago that if Fekir had to play or not, I thought that there are players that you have to know how to support at times like this and week by week they have improved their performance until now ”.
The Chilean coach reiterated his opinion on the use of VAR, which in the last game against Villarreal again played a trick on Betis with the penalty indicated by Emerson's hands that nobody saw. “The VAR issue is complicated. He has improved football in many aspects, but he must deal with everything that is not the referee's discretion. To start reviewing a play after many minutes, or to put images to a referee of a specific moment that he may not have seen is to take away all the authority he has on the pitch. The VAR is to help the referee in important errors, but starting to referee through the image has nothing to do with what the referee sees and takes away his authority ”.