Real Betis are set to take on Roma in the Europa League on Thursday night at the Stadio Olimpico, pitting two sizable clubs against each other, but also two old foes.
Verdiblanco manager Manuel Pellegrini was in charge of Real Madrid for a single season back in 2008-09, leading Los Blancos to a record points total. Ultimately it wasn’t enough for the title and he was pushed out to make way for Jose Mourinho. Something Pellegrini has never exactly found just.
Speaking to La Gazzetta in an interview, carried by Diario AS, Pellegrini’s answers suggested he still remembers the battles with Mourinho in La Liga very clearly.
“Mourinho is a manager who has had a brilliant career and went for the mature option going to Roma. I remember when I went to Malaga after Real Madrid, he took my place, and said he would never coach a team like Malaga.”
“That phrase went viral. I was proud of having gone to Malaga because I live with challenges and that was a new project and we got to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. I think the same happened to Mourinho. He was in the elite of football and now he lives with challenges too, like taking Roma to the Champions League or winning the Conference League.”
Despite what he feels as a levelling of the field between the two personally, Pellegrini reflected on Mourinho’s decision to join Roma as a smart one.
“He took some blows that made him grow: he didn’t enter in decline but there was conflict in each of his exits in the most recent big clubs he was at.”
“For that reason, the choice of Roma seemed like a mature one to me, a step that I took 10 years ago when I went to Malaga. And now Roma have a great manager that can give them the definitive jump in quality, it seems like a clear objective to me because they are signing great players like [Paulo] Dybala.”
Real Betis are also well-placed to make a challenge for the Champions League places this season too. As Pellegrini pointed out, since he arrived, Betis have essentially only signed players for free, a mark of the terrific work he is doing.
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