Real Betis rallies twice past Lille, wins 3-2 in Champions League

Five goals, a red card overturned and a dizzying finish at the Decathlon Arena - Stade Pierre-Mauroy: Real Betis came from behind twice against Lille and walked away with a 2-3 win that leaves it on solid footing in the Champions League league phase. The match looked headed in another direction, since Lille struck first and struck again just as Betis had leveled things up, but the green-and-whites had the final say in barely four minutes of the second half.

The start belonged entirely to Lille. Ayase Ueda put the hosts ahead in the 11th minute with a close-range header off a cross from Ethan Mbappe, and the goal seemed to hand the French side control of the first half. Betis, though, equalized before the break: Marc Bartra popped up in the box to head home a corner delivered by Pablo Fornals, making it 1-1 in the 32nd minute. The Andalusian side's joy was short-lived, because three minutes later, also from a corner, Alexsandro headed into the top corner to hand Lille the lead back before halftime, at 2-1.

The second-half surge

What happened at the start of the second half changed the match completely. Barely three minutes had gone by when Marc Bartra scored his second goal of the night, again with his head and again off a dead-ball play, this time from an Isco free kick delivery: 2-2 in the 48th minute. Betis did not even give Lille time to regroup: four minutes later, Troy Parrott finished with his left foot inside the box after an assist from Rodrigo Riquelme to make it 2-3, a scoreline that would not change again.

The stretch that followed brought an unusual moment involving Ethan Mbappe, who was sent off in the 55th minute for fighting, though just a minute earlier VAR had already overturned a previous red card shown to the same player. Lille, chasing the game and looking for a response, created some late chances (Olivier Giroud, on from the bench, had a shot blocked), but could not trouble the scoreline again.

What the numbers say

Betis controlled possession and also had the edge in the final third despite playing away from home.

The xG estimate calculated from the match's shots also backs up that visiting dominance: 2.18 for Real Betis against just 0.89 for Lille, a gap considerably wider than the final score suggests.

Before kickoff, our preview gave Lille a 41 percent chance of winning, against 28 percent for Real Betis and 31 percent for a draw, with expected goals of 1.33 for the home side and 1.07 for the visitors. What played out on the field was the exact opposite of that forecast: the less-favored team won clearly, and with a combined five goals, well above the 2.4 we had projected for the match as a whole.

What the result means in the standings

With this result, Real Betis picks up its first win of the league phase and sits in 3rd place, with 3 points and a goal difference of plus-1 after one match played. Lille, on the other hand, remains without points: it fell in its opener and sits in 33rd place with a negative goal difference. The gap between the two clubs in the overall standings stands at 3 points, a fairly accurate reflection of how the Betis comeback felt in the second half.