Es is considered the hottest derby in the Spanish league. When Betis Sevilla and FC Sevilla meet, a touch of South American arenas blows through the Andalusian capital. Like recently on January 16, when Nabil Fekir converted a corner directly and equalized for Betis to make it 1-1. Betis fans freaked out at home when a plastic flagpole flew onto the field and hit Joan Jordán in the head.
The Sevilla FC midfielder was treated and his team went into the dressing room to protest. The game was continued the next day, in the end Betis won 2-1. What that shows: Eintracht Frankfurt expects a hot dance for the round of 16 in the Europa League this Wednesday (6.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Europa League and on RTL +) in the Estadio Benito Villamarín.
Betis hasn’t been as successful as it is at the moment for a long time. Not only are they in the round of 16 of the Europa League, on April 23 they will also play in the final of the national cup. And in the league, they have good chances of one of the four Champions League places, even if they lost 3-1 at home to Atlético Madrid at the weekend and have now slipped to fifth place in the table.
Home ground of Spanish football
Juanma Cabrera is not surprised that two clubs from the Andalusian capital, Betis Sevilla and FC Sevilla – second in La Liga – are doing so well. “I rather wonder why that isn’t the norm,” says the 50-year-old Sevilla FC supporter, who also hosted West Ham United in the Europa League round of 16 on Thursday. Both clubs almost always play to a full house and have the potential to dominate Spanish football.
Especially since Andalusia is the home of Spanish football. British miners brought it with them. In 1889, Recreativo Huelva was founded west of Seville as the first Spanish football club, followed in 1890 by FC Sevilla and in 1907 by Betis. Sevilla FC is by far the more successful of the two Seville clubs, having won five Spanish Cups, one Spanish league and two UEFA Cups and four Europa Leagues since 2006.
Tricky designer: Nabil Fekir (right) is Seville’s director.
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Image: AFP
Cabrera admits that it’s easy to speak well of the less successful rival. While Cabreras FC Sevilla strategically bought players cheaply and sold them dearly and collected European titles in recent years, Betis fought for survival, getting relegated in 2009 and 2013. In 2019, Betis was still 15th in the table. Likewise, the first game Montse Rojas can remember playing at the Estadio Benito Villamarín was a defeat.
“I guess I was about ten years old. We played against Real Madrid. I didn’t know much about football and even celebrated Real Madrid’s goal,” the nurse recalls. Since then, the siblings have been arguing about who should accompany their father to Betis. She remembers bad years, especially the ten-year presidency of Manuel Ruiz de Lopera (1996-2006) she has bad memories of. “He spent a lot of money,” she comments on this time.
Hotheads and strategist Fekir
And he wasn’t too particular about the laws. In 2006 he was sentenced to seven months in prison and a fine of five million euros for accounting irregularities. The club was subsequently foreclosed on.
Meanwhile, things are quieter at Betis. Montse Rojas mainly attributes the success to coach Manuel Pellegrini. The Chilean arrived in 2019 and is said to be as cultured as the game he aspires to see on the pitch. With his composure, he is a stark contrast to the hotheads in the stands. You can hear succinct sentences like: “If the assistant referee doesn’t see a red card, it’s not a red card.” Pellegrini likes to have the ball most of the time , loves winging and an attacking defense to regain the ball as quickly as possible if lost. His game designer is the Frenchman Nabil Fekir.
Betis veteran Joaquín rarely plays anymore, with Montse Rojas wondering what will happen once he’s gone. The 40-year-old from his own youth department returned to his home club in 2015 via stations in Valencia, Málaga and Florence. It will probably be his last season, he has only started once this season, has been substituted on 11 times and scored four goals.
Montse Rojas and Juanma Cabrera are good friends by the way. They consider the hotheadedness of the fans, which is well known throughout Spain, to be one of the myths of football. Seville fan Cabrera even sees throwing the flagpole as an anecdote, a crime, but not a serious one. In the past, completely different objects were thrown onto the field, he says. And against Eintracht, he even begrudges his girlfriend Montse her team’s victory.
