Isco converts penalty as Betis edges Feyenoord 1-0 in Champions League

Isco converted the only goal of the match from the penalty spot in the 58th minute, and that was all Real Betis needed to come away with a 1-0 win over Feyenoord at the Estadio La Cartuja in Seville in the Champions League. The scoreline did not fully reflect Betis's dominance, as the home side piled up chances over ninety minutes without finding the breakthrough until well into the second half.

The match began with Betis pushing forward from the opening minute. Abde Ezzalzouli and Antony both tested the Feyenoord goal in the first ten minutes with shots that Justin Bijlow (or whoever the Dutch goalkeeper was) managed to handle. The home side's pressure continued throughout the first half: between the 23rd and 28th minutes Betis strung together as many as five shots, with Antony, Marc Bartra, Troy Parrott and Isco all trying their luck, but none could beat the Feyenoord keeper. The Dutch side answered with a few chances of their own from Anis Hadj Moussa, who rattled the left corner of the crossbar with a shot in the 35th minute, but the score stayed level and the first half ended 0-0.

The second half followed the same pattern until the play that changed everything. In the 57th minute, Jeremiah St. Juste handled the ball inside the box to give away a penalty, and a minute later Isco made no mistake from twelve yards, slotting it with his right foot into the right side of the net to make it 1-0.

With the lead in hand, Manuel Pellegrini turned to his bench for fresh legs: Dani Ceballos and Rodrigo Riquelme came on for Pablo Fornals and Antony in the 63rd minute, and later Giovani Lo Celso and Nelson Deossa replaced Isco and Troy Parrott. Betis kept creating chances, including shots from Marc Roca in the 81st minute and Nelson Deossa in the 84th, but could not extend the lead. On the other side, Giovanni van Bronckhorst also shuffled his lineup, bringing on Tsuyoshi Watanabe, Gaoussou Diarra and Sem Steijn, who had a dangerous attempt in the 85th minute, but Feyenoord could not find an equalizer despite a few late pushes, including through four minutes of stoppage time.

What the numbers show

The stats confirm that Betis was the sharper side despite seeing less of the ball:

Feyenoord controlled more of the ball, but Betis was far more effective in front of goal, putting ten shots on target to just two for the Dutch side. According to our own expected goals estimate, calculated from shot location, Betis generated 2.275 xG compared to Feyenoord's 1.169 xG, a gap that confirms the final score undersold just how much the Pellegrini side produced over the course of the match.

Before kickoff we projected a 48% chance of a Betis win, a 23% chance of a draw and a 29% chance of a Feyenoord victory, with an expected goals split of 2.09 for the home side and 1.59 for the visitors, for a total of 3.69. The final result, a tight 1-0, fell well short of that offensive projection, though the Betis win itself matched the favoritism we gave them heading into kickoff.

What the result means in the standings

With the win, Betis moved to 9 points through 3 matches played, with a record of 3 wins in the competition so far, putting them in fifth place. Feyenoord, meanwhile, sit on 3 points through their 3 matches, the product of one win and two losses, in 26th place. The gap between the two sides in the standings now stands at 6 points, a reflection of how differently each team's Champions League campaign has gone so far.