Betis punished for taking foot off the gas, says captain Isco
WROCLAW, Poland: Real Betis paid the price for taking their foot off the pedal after an impressive first half in Wednesday's Conference League final defeat by Chelsea, said their inspirational captain Isco and veteran coach Manuel Pellegrini.
Betis were a goal up at the break after dominating against their English opponents but were swept away in the second half as Chelsea came back strongly to record a 4-1 victory.
"I think we took refuge in the scoreboard a bit. We sat too deep. They're a team with a lot of quality, a lot of power," said Isco, a five-times Champions League winner with Real Madrid who was outstanding in the opening 45 minutes but like the rest of his teammates looked jaded after the break.
"It's a very heavy defeat after what we did in the first half. Football is unforgiving," he said.
"We had a good first half where they barely had any chances. We had it close and we didn't know how to take advantage of the score, something that has penalised us all season. In a European final, mistakes are very punishing.
"In the second half, they ran over us. It's painful," he added.
"We couldn't maintain the rhythm we expected. It was a tough opponent. A final rout that I don't think reflects the difference between the two teams," added Pellegrini.
"We mustn't forget that we were facing Chelsea. I'm disappointed that we outplayed them in the first half but then let it slip in the second half.
"In the second half, we probably needed to keep pressing higher," added defender Marc Bartra, another player with past Champions League success, at Barcelona.
But he had fulsome praise for the Spanish club's fans who vastly outnumbered Chelsea supporters and provided a noisy background in the Polish city.
"It's a source of pride to see the fans like this. I love this club for the way they always support us, the way they cheer us on. It's a source of pride even in defeat. It says a lot about this club," added Bartra.
"It seems like the season is worthless now, but we'll appreciate it more as time goes on."
Teary-eyed defender Aitor Rubial promised they would be back. Betis will compete in the higher level Europa League next season after a sixth-place finish in LaLiga.
"We've had a tough time this season, a really tough stretch, but we're confident that we're going to pull through this and we'll do it again," he predicted. --REUTERS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Malay Mail
39 minutes ago
- Malay Mail
After years of heartbreak and billions spent, Qatar's PSG finally conquer Europe with record-breaking Champions League triumph
MUNICH, June 1 — After almost 15 years of huge investment, frequent disappointment and occasional humiliation, Paris Saint-Germain got their hands on the Uefa Champions League trophy on Saturday, allowing their Qatari owners to bask in the glory of an emphatic triumph. PSG could not win European football's biggest prize in previous seasons with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, or later with Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, and even after that when they added Lionel Messi to the mix. But they have done it now after shifting the focus away from signing glamorous superstars and letting a brilliant coach in Luis Enrique work with a hungry, dynamic young team. PSG have been Europe's best side in 2025, but the display against Inter Milan in Munich topped it all as they romped to a 5-0 victory, the biggest win in the final in the competition's history. It was ultimately worth the long wait for the Gulf owners who arrived in 2011 when Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) bought an ailing club. Qatar got the perfect World Cup final in 2022, when Messi's Argentina beat Mbappe's France on an epic night in Doha, and now Qatari-owned PSG have the most stunning Champions League final win. It is easy to forget now, but they lost three of their first five games in the tournament this season. 'We had a difficult start. Everyone criticised us and doubted us. Lots of people didn't believe in our project,' PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi told broadcaster Canal Plus. 'The objective now is to win again. It has taken 14 years of hard work but we are building something for the future.' Khelaifi, who is close to Qatar's ruler and holds several influential positions in football including as chairman of the European Club Association, was beaming as he celebrated with the trophy. The first of many? Paris St Germain's Desire Doue celebrates scoring their third goal with Joao Neves and Marquinhos. — Reuters pic It is just the second time any French club has won it after Marseille in 1993. It surely won't take over 30 years for PSG to win another Champions League, especially as this thrilling young side should now stay together for a long time. The average age of their starting line-up on Saturday was under 25 and their oldest player is Marquinhos at 31 — he has been there since 2013. 'I have suffered and I have grown with this team,' the Brazilian told broadcaster M6. 'My thoughts are with all the players who played here but were not able to win it.' It has required 14 years, eight coaches, and over two billion euros (RM9.7 billion) spent on transfer fees for QSI to get here. In the last 12 campaigns before this season, PSG reached one final, losing to Bayern Munich in Lisbon in 2020. There were two semi-final defeats, but there have also been humiliating collapses in the last 16 against Barcelona in 2017, Manchester United in 2019 and Real Madrid in 2022. 'I said when I came in that the objective was to win important trophies, and the only one missing was the Champions League,' said Luis Enrique, appointed in 2023. Club World Cup the next target After Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City's victory two years ago, also against Inter, it is another triumph for a club with mega-rich Gulf owners. Paris Saint-Germain's Georgian forward Khvicha Kvaratskhelia runs with the ball during the Uefa Champions League final football match between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan in Munich. — AFP pic PSG's victory was always only a matter of time. Their revenue last year of just over 800 million euros made them the third-richest club in analysts Deloitte's Football Money League. They sat behind only Real and City, and just ahead of traditional European aristocrats United, Bayern and Barcelona. PSG's last reported annual wage bill was close to double Inter's entire revenues. The difference with past years is that they are now spending the money more intelligently, on the likes of Saturday's two-goal hero Desire Doue, Joao Neves and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Luis Enrique and sporting director Luis Campos recently signed new contracts with the club who also won all three available titles in France this season. PSG will now take away more than 100 million euros just in prize money from winning the Champions League, and there is the chance for more glory and riches as they head to the highly lucrative Fifa Club World Cup in the USA. Qatar-owned PSG's quest for domination will not stop with Europe. 'I think it is an incredible competition,' said Luis Enrique, whose side face Atletico Madrid in Los Angeles in two weeks' time. 'Our aim is to be competitive and to try to win a fifth trophy of the season.' — AFP
Malay Mail
2 hours ago
- Malay Mail
PSG to celebrate long-awaited Champions League title with Champs-Elysees parade amid tight security after chaotic night
PARIS, June 1 — Paris Saint-Germain's players and staff will hold a victory parade on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday to celebrate with their fans after emphatically ending their long wait to win the Champions League. Coach Luis Enrique and his team including Desire Doue, the 19-year-old who lit up the final in Munich on Saturday by scoring twice in the stunning 5-0 win against Inter Milan, will also be hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron. More than 100,000 people are expected to watch their heroes in the parade on Paris' showpiece avenue after the team won the biggest prize in European club football for the first time in their history. In a long night of wild celebrations, fans thronged the streets of the capital, letting off flares and fireworks as decades of pent-up frustration were released. Police made nearly 600 arrests across France, the interior ministry said, after more than 200 cars were torched and police clashed with youths. In the southwest town of Dax, a 17-year-old boy died after being stabbed in the chest. A 23-year-old man riding a scooter in central Paris was also killed after being hit by a vehicle. A policeman was put in an induced coma after being injured by a firework. The parade on the Champs-Elysees will be closed to traffic and surrounded by tight security. A victory parade by Liverpool Football Club's players in the English city last Monday ended in horrific scenes after a car ploughed into the crowd, leaving 79 people injured. Drawn from Paris suburbs In a message on X, formerly Twitter, Macron hailed a 'day of glory for PSG'. 'Bravo, we are all proud,' he wrote. 'Paris is the capital of Europe tonight.' The margin of victory was the greatest in a final in the history of the Champions League or the European Cup that preceded it. Many of the stars of the team, one of the youngest in the competition, are drawn from the huge football talent pool in the Paris suburbs after PSG's Qatari owners turned their back on their former policy of signing star players like Neymar and Lionel Messi. While Doue cemented his status as a rising star in world football, Senny Mayulu, another 19-year-old, came on as a substitute towards the end of the match and scored the fifth goal. Mayulu said afterwards that the achievement would take time to sink in. 'I still can't believe it, I think it will only seem real tomorrow. In the dressing room, everyone broke down in their own way, you could see it in their eyes, people were filled with joy and pride.' Lifting the trophy on Saturday after losing in their only other appearance in the final five years ago was the result of hundreds of millions of euros pumped into PSG since Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) bought an ailing club in 2011. 'The objective now is to win again. It has taken 14 years of hard work but we are building something for the future,' PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi said. — AFP
New Straits Times
2 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Two dead, 559 arrested in wild PSG Champions League celebrations
PARIS: Two people died, hundreds were arrested and cars set ablaze in France overnight as football fans celebrated Paris Saint-Germain's stunning Champions League final victory, the interior ministry said on Sunday. The epicentre of the euphoria was in Paris, which was a theatre of car horns, cheers, singing in the street and fireworks throughout the night following PSG's 5-0 triumph over Inter Milan in Munich. The ministry said 491 people were arrested in the capital when crowds converged on the Champs-Elysees avenue and clashes broke out with officers. Across France as a whole, including Paris, a total of 559 people were arrested, it added. The two deaths occurred as the celebrations took place. A man riding a motor scooter in Paris died after being hit by a car in the city's southern 15th arrondissement located just a couple of kilometres (miles) away from the Champs-Elysees. In the southwestern town of Dax, a 17-year-old boy was fatally stabbed at a gathering feting the PSG victory, prosecutors said. His death occurred "during the celebrations", but the prosecutor's office said it did not know whether it was directly related to the Champions League final. It added that the perpetrator was "on the run." The interior ministry said that 18 police officers in Paris were injured, along with three elsewhere in France, as were 192 people celebrating in the streets. Seven fire-service personnel were also hurt. It said that 692 fires were reported through the night, including 264 cars that were set ablaze. The PSG team were to hold a victory parade on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday, with tens of thousands of supporters expected to gather to catch a glimpse of their returning heroes. Overnight, AFP journalists saw police on the famed thoroughfare using a water cannon to stop a crowd reaching the Arc de Triomphe, which sits at the top of the Champs-Elysees. Police, in a statement, said "troublemakers" clashed with officers "by throwing large fireworks and other objects." One policeman was in an induced coma after being hit in the eye by a firework in the Normandy region, prosecutors said. Elsewhere, police said a car careered into fans celebrating PSG's win in Grenoble in southeastern France, leaving four people injured, two of them seriously. All of those hurt were from the same family, police said. The driver handed himself in to the police and was placed under arrest. A source close to the investigation said it was believed the driver had not acted intentionally. The public prosecutor's office said the driver had tested negative for alcohol and drugs. The majority of fans celebrated peacefully, but police in Paris said scuffles broke out near the Champs-Elysees avenue, and around PSG's Parc des Princes stadium, where 48,000 had watched the match on giant screens. Most of those arrested in the capital were suspected of illegally possessing fireworks and causing disorder, police said. The PSG victory meant the club won the biggest prize in European club football for the first time in their history. One 20-year-old PSG supporter, Clement, said: "It's so good and so deserved! We have a song that talks about our struggles and it hasn't always been easy. "But we got our faith back this year with a team without stars. They're 11 guys who play for each other." French President Emmanuel Macron's office said he would host the victorious players on Sunday to congratulate them. In a message on X, Macron hailed a "day of glory for PSG." Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo hailed it as a "historic" win. A total of 11.5 million people tuned in across France to watch the match, according to figures given by the Mediametrie audience-measurement company and one of the broadcasters, Canal+. - AFP
