For the second time this season, Real Betis have exited a European competition. They were dumped out of the Europa League before Christmas after finishing third in their group – that meant they were demoted to the Europa Conference League, and they have now been knocked out of that competition too after losing on aggregate to Dinamo Zagreb.
Betis lost the first leg 1-0 at the Benito Villamarin last weekend, which meant that they needed to win to force extra time at the very least in Zagreb. They were on course to do so when Cedric Bakambu scored his first goal for the club in his first start in the first half.
However, Takuro Kaneko found an equaliser for Dinamo in the second half, which put them 2-1 up on aggregate. That’s how it remained until full time, despite Betis’ best efforts to force extra time.
It ends a very disappointing European season for Real Betis, who must now put their full focus on La Liga. It’s also bad news for Spanish football in terms of achieving five Champions League places for next season, as they now only have Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Sociedad (all in the Champions League) to push the co-efficient up.
