Manuel Pellegrini’s side had poor performances but could not hold up against Michael Beale’s rejuvenated side.
Isco from Betis and Jose Cifuentes from Rangers in action
Former Real Madrid star Isco was quick to remind the interviewer of the caliber of Rangers as he insists his Betis side take part in the Ibrox taster.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side looked ahead but the hosts came on strong in the second half to secure a morale-boosting Europa League win with Abdallah Sima’s close-range strike. Betis went down but Isco didn’t let up and was willing to send a curious reporter straight from home when asked why they couldn’t win in Glasgow.
“The other team is playing too,” he quickly replied. Before you add: “I think that playing the way we played today, we win more often than we lose. Luck was not on our side this time. However, I think the team responded, In the last moments we applied pressure, we had our options and it shouldn’t have been.”
And Hector Bellerin is aiming to make it fifth in a row after the defeat in Glasgow. Although defeat was not on the to-do list for the former Arsenal star, he admits the clash with the 2022 Europa League finalists was the toughest fixture on the schedule.
He said: “It was a very physical match with balls into space. If Barcelona beat us the other day, today we lost. We needed a little more. This is the first match, we knew it would be the hardest game of this group stage.
There are five games left and we have to win them all. We have to learn from these games, we have to play them with the ball at our feet.”
