Forever Betis

One to forget

The coverline reads: "UNWORTHY: an incomprehensible, almost insulting performance from Betis in Palma, where Mel's men didn't come close to looking like a team fighting to be in Europe"

Pepe Mel wasn't mincing his words after last night's performance. "It was a bad game for us overall and the first half in particular was disastrous," he told the press. "We couldn't string two passes together, we didn't match them for intensity and they won every 50-50 ball. It could easily have been 4-0 at half-time. We were a bit better in the second half, but it looked liked only one of the teams had something to play for. On Sunday we've got another game against a team playing for their lives and if we don't compete with the same intensity as them then we've got no chance. The only positive to come out of tonight is that our future is still in our own hands."

Just to confirm that he wasn't happy, the players got a half-hour lecture before tonight's low-key training session - not that they probably needed telling that they'd messed up. This isn't Sunderland.

"We're upset because that was a bad first-half performance," said Salva Sevilla. "We just weren't ourselves and they got ahead and we couldn't get the equaliser. We didn't pass the ball and use the wings like we can do, and we know if we'd done these things better then we would have got a different result."

Captain-on-the-night Nacho was more specific. "We went out with the idea of keeping things tighter and hitting them on the break, but we couldn't make it work in practice. In the second half the game was more even, albeit without clear chances, but the key was the first period. They beat us for attitude. They had a lot at stake but we should have come out with more intensity."

What's clear is that Betis badly missed their three injured players - Cañas, Nosa and Molina - with the latter in particular proving in his absence exactly how indispensable he is as a link between the midfield and his mate Rubén Castro. Hopefully he and Cañas, who no-one could ever accuse of lacking intensity, will be back for Sunday's visit of Zaragoza.

And for this game, the final home match of the season, the club are offering season-ticket holders the chance to buy an extra ticket for just €5, so we can expect another bumper crowd for the occasion. If the Pepe Mel rollockings haven't persuaded the players to buck their ideas up, perhaps the attention of 40,000 Béticos will.

How it happened

One of these teams started the game seventh in Primera, the other 20th. You see if you can guess which is which.

Mallorca 1-0 Real Betis

Perhaps if we ask nicely they'll finish the season now, before things get much worse.

For 45 minutes the Betis players looked like they'd never even been introduced and allowed the Primera's worse side to run riot; I think the official shot count at half-time was 10-0. A single 21st minute goal was the very least that Mallorca deserved.

After the break things improved slightly, helped by the arrival of Pabón and Vadillo, but by then Mallorca's defence had settled into a groove and were not to be passed. Betis controlled most of the second-half possession, and in Salva Sevilla arguably had the most creative player on the pitch, but they could only conjure up a couple of half chances and the home side eventually held on for three points they simply seemed to want more than the visitors did. A very disappointing evening not worth dwelling on.

Betis: Adrián; Chica, Amaya, Mario, Nacho; Rubén Pérez, Beñat, Salva Sevilla (Molins, m. 81); Campbell (Pabón, m. 37) Juan Carlos (Vadillo, m. 56), Rubén Castro.

Goal: 1-0, m. 20: Hemed. 

Live thread: Mallorca-Betis

Of course, it's quite possible for Betis to lose tonight and still finish in the top seven - just as it's quite possible for Mallorca to win and still get relegated - but it would obviously be nice to wrap things up sooner rather than later. The game is being broadcast live on free-to-air channel el Cuatro here in Spain - and on the Sky Sports Xtra website in the UK - so you should be able to find a live stream somewhere, so feel free to use the Comments below for hoots and hollers. I hope to join you in the second half. A big last-Monday-night-for-a-while ¡Musho Betis! to readers around the world.

Preview: Mallorca v. Real Betis (10pm)

After so long drifting around in the doldrums of seventh place, suddenly the wind has picked up and Betis have a chance to really go somewhere. A win tonight will secure a ton of juicy prizes: at least a week in sixth place, a position in the Europa League next season, a finish above Sevilla for the first time in eight years, an end to Monday night football... All of which would be received gratefully. Only Mallorca, bottom and needing at least a point tonight to avoid certain relegation, stand between us and the loot.

Of course, things rarely work out as conveniently as they might here in Betisland, so it would be wrong to expect the sort of cakewalk enjoyed in Granada a few weeks back. Pepe Mel has travelled to Mallorca without Jorge Molina, Cañas, Nosa, Álex Martínez and Perquis thanks to various end-of-season knocks and strains, so the full squad is: Adrián, Fabricio, Ángel, Nacho, Chica, Mario, Paulao, Amaya, Rubén Pérez, Beñat, Salva Sevilla, Nono, Joel Campbell, Vadillo, Juan Carlos, Pabón, Molins and Rubén Castro. Sweden's Guillermo Molins is back in after a long time discarded, you'll notice.

As last week, Betis are likely to start in a kind of 4-1-4-1 formation with Rubén Pérez anchoring the midfield behind Beñat and Salva Sevilla and two of Vadillo, Pabón, Campbell and Juan Carlos providing the width for Rubén Castro. On the whole, though, I suspect the main tactics will be to allow Mallorca plenty of possession and hope they beat themselves. The home team have only won twice since inexplicably taking three points from Betis in Seville in December and are almost bound to go down to Segunda even if they win tonight. Much of the fans' frustrations will no doubt be directed at vice-president Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, who, of course, was Betis coach when the verdiblancos last qualified for Europe in 2005 (a prize secured with a draw away at Mallorca, curiously).

If you're watching the game, you can keep an eye out for two Mallorca players Betis are apparently ready to snap up if their club goes down - midfielder Tomás Pina and forward Giovani Dos Santos - but otherwise this is one of those times where the points are way more important than how we get them. By this stage of the season we know which side is the better of the two; all our boys have to do now is prove it.