The other derby of silence

The prelude to the Sevillian derby invites to a walk through the memory that is most parallel to the present. It was in 2007. The quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey They put on the table a derby that exposed a 0-0 in the first leg of the Pizjuán before the debacle in a lap that It started at Benito Villamarín and ended at Getafe. The extreme tension marked by the speeches of the presidents Del Nido and Lopera it was reflected in a tense atmosphere that ended with a bottle to Juande Ramos, the Sevilla coach, at Benito Villamarín. Almost a month later, the remaining 33 minutes of a clash that dominated Sevilla by 0-1 were played thanks to a goal from Kanouté. The alignments and, above all, the context changed: a Coliseum without an audience hosted that unusual half hour. “It was like a kid game in which the coaches are heard,” he reminds this newspaper. Juanito. The exbético was part of the back of a team led by Luis Fernandez. “The atmosphere was complicated, the game was already conditioned because we had to come back and there was a rush. This derby will be different, the teams have assimilated this now,” warns the excentral international.

On the Seville side, along with Juande Ramos, he was Antonio Álvarez as second coach: “I had never experienced that as a player or as a coach. It was something we did not know. Everything was different, you heard every scream.” He does not hesitate now to issue a warning in the face of what may happen this coming Thursday in Pizjuán: “Getting psyched will be key, whoever does it faster will have a lot of cattle. The public is a leading player in football and one can relax Without people it seems like a training match. That day in Getafe we ​​put a lot of emphasis on not losing concentration. “

At the Betis goal he was then Koke Contreras, who now warns of a possible advantage for the Andalusian team: “It is possible that Sevilla will not adapt to playing without an audience and that they can take advantage of.” To this simulation of a training is added Dani, who was part of the Betis attack in that phantom derby: “It was very cold, sometimes it seemed like training. You even listen to what the journalists say.”

Mind. Thirteen years have passed since the strange appointment that placed Sevilla in the semifinals of a Copa del Rey that would end up winning. “The environment can beat some players, others play their football better without that pressure,” thinks Antonio Álvarez. Juanito's vision is different: “The Primera player has passed enough filters to pass that pressure from the public, it is clear that the visitor is favored behind an empty door.” “Whether or not it affects you is something very personal,” says Contreras.