Real Betis hosts Zenit in the second leg of the Europa League 1/16 finals. The match will be played on Thursday, February 24th at Estadio Benito Villamarín (Sevilla)
Manuel Pellegrini's team started the European campaign in the group stage of the Europa League. Betis qualified for the playoffs from the 2nd line of Group G. The Green-Whites earned ten points in matches against Bayer Leverkusen (1-1 and 0-4), Celtic (4-3 and 2-3), and Ferencváros (3-1 and 2-0). Last Thursday Betis began its performance in the playoffs with a match in St. Petersburg. And playing without several key footballers, the Andalusians won 3-2. Moreover, all goals were scored before halftime. Guido Rodriguez, Willian Jose, and Andres Guardado scored for the Sevillians, and Artem Dzyuba and Malcom scored for the Russian team. Inspired by the success in St. Petersburg, Betis beat Mallorca on February 20 (2-1). The Green-Whites earned another three points in LaLiga thanks to goals from Alex Moreno and Willian José, who converted a penalty at the end of the game.
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Sergei Semak’s team began their performance in European competitions in the group stage of the Champions League. Zenit finished in 3rd place in Group H, scoring five points in games against Chelsea (0-1 and 3-3), Juventus (0-1 and 2-4), and Malmo FF (4-0 and 1-1). With these results, the champions of Russia moved to the playoffs of the Europa League. After the home defeat to Betis, Zenit was systematically preparing for the second leg. The Blue-White-Sky Blues will resume playing in the RPL only on February 28 when they will host Rubin Kazan. The team from Saint Petersburg is heading to Spain with a 16-match streak without victories in 16 away games in European competitions. Semak's players have gained four draws and suffered 12 defeats in the Champions League and UEL away matches since the fall of 2018.
The fans saw five goals in the match in St. Petersburg. The second leg can be just as productive. Betis can field all the leaders, including Nabil Fekir, who was serving a suspension. Zenit will be vulnerable in defense without Dejan Lovren, so the Sevillians will almost certainly upset the opponents’ goalkeeper. However, Semak’s team should score in Spain as well. In the current draw of European competitions, Zenit did not score only against Chelsea in London (1-0). In the first leg, the attack of the Petersburgers brought a lot of problems to the defense of the Green-Whites, who are famous for their unreliability. Betis conceded eight goals in the last five official matches, it will only worsen these statistics in the upcoming game.
Prediction for the match: Over 2.5 goals scored
