Maxi Rodriguez wondergoal not enough as Utrecht fall short in Seville against Real Betis
FC Utrecht remain winless in the UEFA Europa League after losing 2-1 to Real Betis away on Thursday evening. Ron Jans’ side gave their all but came up just short in the La Cartuja stadium, despite an incredible goal from Maxi Rodriguez.
Utrecht is now 32nd in the 36-team league. They have to finish in the first 24 spots to make the playoffs for the next round. They face English side Nottingham Forest, KRC Genk from Belgium, and Scottish side Celtic in their remaining games.
It was almost a great start for the away side when they had a chance to score in the 10th minute. The ball slipped through to left back Sofian El Karouni, but his effort was saved by Alvaro Valles in the Betis goal.
Betis missed the next chance when former Ajax winger Antony, who was jeered throughout the game by the traveling support, found striker Chucho Hernandez in the box. Hernandez calmly dribbled around Utrecht keeper Michael Brouwer before his shot was cleared off the goalline by Mike van den Hoorn.
The home side scored the first goal of the game a few minutes before halftime. Antony was stronger than Can Bozdogan, and he then crossed the ball to Hernandez, who nodded the ball into the corner.
Betis made it 2-0 in the 50th minute. The Moroccan winger Abde Ezzalzouli surprised Brouwer with a well-struck effort into the near corner from outside the penalty box.
It seemed to be all over Jans’ men until an absolutely sublime goal from Miguel Rodriguez brought them back into the game five minutes later. The Spaniard controlled the ball in his own half, took it slightly over the halfway line before hitting a powerful shot over Valles from around 50 meters out.
The visitors had the momentum, and they thought they had capitalized on it a few minutes later when Derry Murkin, who came on for El Karouani after he had taken a nasty blow to the head, had the ball in the net. But after all the celebrations, it was revealed that the English full-back had strayed offside, and the goal was disallowed.
Brouwer did well to keep Utrecht in the game in injury time when he stopped Pablo Garcia’s effort from close range, when he had been played in by Pablo Fornals.
This almost proved to be vital when Utrecht came close to equalizing in the final seconds of the game. Gijval Zechiel, the Feyenoord loanee who made another good impression when coming on, played a pass into the path of Adrien Blake. His cross found Dani de Wit in the box, but the ball hit the upper part of the midfielder’s leg and went wide, leading to some Utrecht players falling to the ground.
