Betis promises to make life difficult for FC Porto: “It’s fundamental to win”

José Maria Gallego, administrator of SAD do Real Betis, granted an extensive interview to the Tuesday edition of the newspaper The Ball, in which it proved confident that it will be possible to repeat the feat of the inaugural journey of the league phase of the Champions League, in which the Andalusians defeated Lille, by 2-3, and take FC Porto, this time, in the Stadium of La Cartuja.

“It’s an important game. I think, after the first victory we achieved outside the home, on the first day of the Champions League, face the first game at home against such a difficult opponent, as strong as FC Porto, with so much tradition in the Champions League, I think this is very important to us ", started by saying.

“ To try to achieve this goal of moving on to the second phase, it is essential to add points and win FC Porto, which will not be easy. I am convinced that he is a difficult adversary (...). The truth is that the fans are very, very excited about this competition, especially with the movements ", continued.

“In the Champions League, the most important thing is, above all, to try to stay among the first 24 clubs and move on to the next phase; then, we will see what is waiting for us at this stage, but, as the main objective, try to advance and, simultaneously, not forget La Liga and re-qualify us to the Champions League for the second consecutive year, which would also be a real milestone for the club, because never in history we could be two consecutive years in the race”, he completed.

The Real Betis-FC Porto, remember, has an initial whistle scheduled for Wednesday's 20h00 (Portugal Time) and will be beeped by Clément Turpin, who will lead a 100% French team, composed by assistants Nicolas Danos and Benjamin Pages, the fourth referee Jérémie Pignard, VAR Willy Delajod and AVAR Mathieu Vernice.

At what point are FC Porto and Real Betis?

FC Porto, remember, entered the new 2026/27 Champions League sports season when he was defeated from the fight with Manchester City at the Dragon Stadium by 0-2. This was the only ‘percalco’ that had, so far, since, in the nine games played between I Liga and Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira, it added so many victories.

Much happier was the Royal Betis, who took the best over Lille, in the trip to Stade Pierre-Mauroy, by 2-3. This, in parallel with the positive path (although not as much as that of the dragons, of course is) that has been performing in La Liga, in which it takes six triumphs, a draw and an out.

This means that the Spaniards, with three points in the ‘algibeira’, share the leadership of the million-dollar race with Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Manchester United, Like Stuttgart, Sporting, Manchester City, Lens, Aston Villa, Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Arsenal and AEK.

The Portuguese, for their part, remain counting to ‘zeros’, such as Villarreal, Club Brugge, Slavia Prague, Lille, Atlético de Madrid, Internazionale, Napoli, LASK Linz, Viking, Galatasaray, Leipzig, Feyenoord, Sabah, Slovan Bratislava and Bodo/Glimt, so they live at the bottom of the table.