Real Betis: Best players and manager profile of Man Utd's Europa League opponents

Manchester United will be up against La Liga's Real Betis in the Europa League last 16 after defeating Barcelona across two thrilling legs.

When the Englishman Vic Buckingham was Barcelona's manager as the 1960s bled into the '70s, he prepared a unique motivational talk before a match against Real Betis. Standing in front of blackboard with just one word scrawled across it - "BETIS" - Buckingham bellowed: "Who are Betis? F*** Betis," before kicking the board to the floor.

Manchester United fans may be asking a similar question - though perhaps less vociferously - ahead of the club's first leg against the Spanish outfit next month. Here's everything you need to know before Erik ten Hag (hopefully) recreates Buckingham's dramatics.

Who are Real Betis' best players?

When Nabil Fekir is on-song, he can be one of the most exciting players in the Spanish top flight. Unfortunately for Betis this season, the World Cup winner has endured a campaign punctuated by injury and ill-discipline, only intermittently flickering into life.

Sergio Canales had been Betis' most-used and arguably most influential player in the absence of Fekir but pulled up after creating and scoring both goals in a victory over Real Valladolid last weekend. Much to the relief of those that favour green and white, Betis' playmaker is expected to return swiftly, comfortably in time for the trip to Old Trafford on Thursday, 9 March.

Betis have not deviated from their familiar 4-2-3-1 formation in any match this season. The duo of Argentina's World Cup winner Guido Rodriguez and William Carvalho - a midfielder so regal in possession he was nicknamed 'Sir William' - that sit alongside one another in that double pivot provide the ballast for the likes of Canales to create.

Top scorer Borja Iglesias, known as 'Panda' because of his obsession with Desiigner's single rather than the giant bear, is rarely left out of a side that can boast as many as 17 different goalscorers this season.

Who is Real Betis' manager?

The figure patrolling the Betis dugout will be all too familiar to Manchester United fans. Manuel Pellegrini spent three seasons in the north of England with United's fierce rivals Manchester City between 2013 and 2016.

Pep Guardiola's predecessor won the Premier League title in his debut season, finishing 22 points above a United side that wilted after Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement. Pellegrini also nabbed two League Cups and steered City to the club's first-ever Champions League semi-final, which they lost 1-0 on aggregate to Real Madrid.

The 69-year-old Chilean won his first three Manchester derbies by an aggregate score of 8-1 before collecting one point from his final trio. During Pellegrini's 18-month stint at West Ham, after a lucrative two years at the aptly named Hebei China Fortune, he earned another two victories against United but lost 2-1 on his most recent trip to Old Trafford in April 2019.

After six months to rest and reset following his departure from West Ham, Pellegrini joined his fourth La Liga club before the 2020/21 campaign, adding Betis to a list of successful - if not always fully appreciated - spells at Villarreal, Real Madrid and Malaga.

How is Real Betis' season going?

By Halloween, it was threatening to be a frighteningly good season for Betis. After defeating Champions League challengers Real Sociedad the night before, only Barcelona and Real Madrid had collected more points than Pellegrini's side through the first third of the season.

However, the Sevilla-based outfit stuttered after that apex, struggling to score - and, more worryingly, create - on either side of the World Cup.

These difficulties at the sharp end of the pitch proved to be a blip as February marked a return to the team's cavalier attacking approach - which is so embedded that even the club's official Twitter account has used the hashtag: "AlwaysWatchBetis".

That will surely be advice many adhere to with a couple of enthralling ties against Manchester United on the horizon.

Source : 90min