Marcelino: “We went toe-to-toe with Betis”

Despite being disappointed with the loss, Athletic Club head coach had no complaints about his players’ performance after Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Real Betis at the Benito Villamarín.

Borja Iglesias scored the only goal of the match with a header in the 20th minute. Athletic pushed hard for an equaliser and were on top throughout most of the second half, but could not find the killer ball in the final third.

“I’ve got nothing but good things to say about the players,” Marcelino said during his post-match press conference.

“We went toe-to-toe with a very good team. In the end, the team who’ve scored more goals this season won the match. Betis are a good side and scored a good goal, although perhaps we could have defended it better.

“We had plenty of chances but we weren’t able to score. We had the right attitude, but we weren’t clinical enough in the final stretch of the match.

As of full-time, the Lions are five points off sixth place with 10 matches left to play in LaLiga this campaign. Marcelino urged his players to focus on their next match.

“We’re annoyed at the moment because we were desperate to win this match,” he said. “But now we have to concentrate on the next fixture in order to not have any regrets.

“There are 10 matches left, six of which we’ll play at home. Now it’s time to pull ourselves together because we take on a tough opponent [Getafe CF].”