Europa League: Roma holds Real Betis to a draw in Spain

The La Liga side won the reverse fixture at the Stadio Olimpico last week with the hope of continuing their winning run.

With this draw, the Serie A side could be said to have got themselves back on track in the Europa League. All thanks to summer signing Andrea Belotti, who secured the point for the Gialorossi.

The host could have also won, but VAR cancelled out the deflected Sergio Canales opener.

Having lost two out of three opening games the group, the Giallorossi were third in their group, including 2-1 at home to Betis last week. 

Roma made the first headway when Luiz Felipe blocked off Andrea Belotti’s attempt. Lorenzo Pellegrini also tested the goalkeeper on the rebound.

Roma were fortunate as Juan Miranda slipped when Sergio Canales found him unmarked at the back post.

Betis eventually drew the first blood from a lucky goal. Sergio Canales’ distance strike took a massive deflection off Roger Ibanez to completely wrong-foot Rui Patricio.

Let’s got another chance to double their lead through another Canales scorcher. This time around, it was deflected wide.

 Roma, we’re also unlucky when Andrea Belotti nodded in a Leonardo Spinazzola cross on the stroke of half-time, but he was marginally offside.

Roma would have restored parity in the second half through Lorenzo Pellegrini’s in-swinging corner, leaving Bravo surprised. After the ball was practically cleared off the line,  there was tension. 

The equaliser also had debates. At first, the offside flag was up again when Belotti tapped in a roll across from the right by substitute Mady Camara. But after a long VAR review that confirmed Camara was level, it was counted.

On the sideline,  Jose Mourinho already celebrated on the bench, as he saw the replay on a tablet and was far more confident of Camara’s position.

This was the first time Real Betis failed to win on home turf this season in all competitions.