Head coach of Spanish Betis Manuel Pellegrini commented on the victory of his team over Krivoy Rog "Kryvbas" (2:0) in the first match of the play-off round of the qualification round of the Conference League, which took place yesterday in Kosice.
Manuel Pellegrini"The conclusions are positive, we won with a two-goal advantage - a result that gives us even more confidence in what we are doing. Maybe we had a few more opportunities to distinguish ourselves, but the season has just started and there are challenges. We need to finish a little more calmly in attack, in particular.
In general, we showed a good game. "Kryvbas" almost didn`t hit our goal, and our goalkeeper never had to really get into the game. It is because our defense today was of high quality. We deprived our opponents of space and won battles in the air.
I really appreciate the mood of the team, its desire to achieve a good result. Now for 90 minutes of the return match we need to secure our passage to the main stage of the Conference League. We'll have to avoid any unpleasant surprises, and for that we need to think about our game, not the score of the first match. Of course, a two-goal advantage helps, but if you play thinking about it, you lose your quality. So at home we must fully engage in the game from the first minute without looking at what advantage we have and try to win again," Marca quoted Pellegrini as saying.
