Seville Y Betis face tonight in a derby of the a priori more even During the last years (follow the game live on AS.com). Imperial until just a few days ago, when fell eliminated consecutively in Cup Y Champions and has lost two league games in a row, the Lopetegui team He is now just six points (with one less duel, yes) from his eternal rival. By cons, the Betis he is riding on a winning series of four consecutive victories and no less than 22 of 29 possible points during this 2021. Tremendous streak that has boosted the sixth place of the table, as one of the main applicants to at least contest next year the Europe or Conference League, but also dreaming of the Champions League if his eternal rival does not wake up. And especially if you do not do it today, in the heat of a game of ultimate rivalry that the pandemic will leave no audience in the stands.
The derby of Kiricocho. The word has turned to into fashion this week because the sevillista goalkeeper Bond I know it yelled at Erling Haaland before saving him a penalty and the Norwegian striker returned it after repeat toss of the maximum penalty, this time with a goal. Kiricocho: a word whose history originally belongs to Carlos Salvador Bilardo, who took advantage of the jinx of your own follower, called Kiricocho, to proclaim champion of Argentina with Estudiantes de la Plata. He presented it to rivals and it worked for him. In Seville there are some very similar mufas.
Use Bilardo the little word also when signed for Sevilla years later … and the use now Bonus because surely it has been taught by one of the many Argentines who play for the Nervión club (Ocampos, Acuña, Mudo or Papu). But it is that, they will think the superstitious and among them the assistant of Pellegrini Ruben Cousillas, Kiricocho may also have become one of the weapons of the miraculous improvement of this Betis.
They say that Cousillas uses it constantly on the Betis bench at key moments in matches. And the reality is that the verdiblancos do not stop winning in Connection, many times, with some power that seems supernatural: he was awarded two penalties in the last minutes against Getafe, he defeated the Cadiz with a header from the small Juanmi or, less than a week ago, he went back to Alavés a 0-2 during a last half hour of sheer madness at Benito Villamarín.
The game against the babazorros rose again the figure of Borja Iglesias, bigoleador after leaving the bench and who is possibly one of the Betic novelties in the eleven next to the recovered central Víctor Ruiz. That is if superstition does not continue to be able to Pellegrini and prefers to pull the Galician forward again from the dock.
In Sevilla yesterday an important last minute doubt, Lucas Ocampos, that he did not exercise with his teammates in the training session before the duel. The Argentine winger, yes, follows a particular treatment on his left ankle, the one that Getafense Gené annoyed him two months ago. In the absence of knowing if Ocampos is to finally play, Lopetegui I only doubted with the companion of Fernando and Joan Jordán in the center of the field. Rakitic, Óliver Torres, Papu Gómez and Óscar Rodríguez, all of them were good in Dortmund, they oppose to that vacant place.