Pellegrini, in the face of adversity

COVID also hit Betis with six affected footballers at the gates of the Verdiblancos league match against Celta next Sunday. This was confirmed by the club while waiting for some of them to be back in the coming days after being detected prior to the last PCR carried out on the squad. But Pellegrini already glimpses the appointment against Celta with multiplied inconveniences in a scenario similar to that of the beginning of 2021: then it was at the gates of the derby on January 2 and the alarm for a possible outbreak was in the absence of three pieces due to the Coronavirus . Curiously, from that date his team began an escalation with which he ended up in European positions.

The Betis coach wants to put aside this setback and tries to make his team aware of the importance of starting well in 2022. In their training yesterday, Fekir, Álex Moreno, Pezzella, Ruibal, Borja Iglesias and Claudio Bravo were absent, as well as Montoya and Camarasa, who have already added more weeks due to their injuries. It did have, however, Guarded, absent in the last appointment and who points to the starting team this Sunday. Pellegrini looks for strings of optimism so that the brilliant path of his team does not fade.

He also has traces of hope in the ambition installed in his squad since the beginning of the season. Borja Iglesias, one of the footballers who are on the sidelines due to COVID, insisted on a clear message: “We are well positioned and we are ambitious on all open fronts.” Pellegrini is looking for ingredients multiplied in Heliópolis so that this adversity, also present in his rival on Sunday, is not decisive in the team’s journey. He pulled some homegrown players like Raúl or Marchena in his training session and he wants this not to affect a dynamic that keeps the Verdiblanco team in the Champions zone of LaLiga.