Four of Betis’s five wins have finished 1-0, and this one took 22 shots

Getafe kept 25 per cent of the ball at the Benito Villamarín on Thursday and still went in at the break only one goal down. That is most of what you need to know about Real Betis this season. Abde Ezzalzouli scored in the 45th minute, Betis had 22 shots and never found a second, and they came off the pitch third in La Liga.

Parrott’s pass, and a look at the monitor

The goal arrived in the last minute of the half, on a break. Troy Parrott played Ezzalzouli in, and the Morocco winger finished low with his right foot from the middle of the box past David Soria. The referee then went to check whether the ball had struck Ezzalzouli’s arm in the build-up. It had not. The goal stood, and it was his first of the season.

Parrott has spent September deciding Betis matches without always being the man who scores them. His first goal for the club beat Real Madrid at this ground on 4 September. Four days later he scored the winner away at Lille on his Champions League debut, a 53rd-minute finish that completed a 3-2 comeback on Betis’s return to the competition after two decades away. On Thursday he made the pass instead.

Soria made six saves and still lost

Getafe’s goalkeeper finished the night as the best player on the pitch by some distance. Soria made six saves, one of them turning an Antony shot onto the post. Betis put eight of their 22 attempts on target. Against a keeper having a quieter evening the scoreline reads 3-0 and nobody talks about the game again.

Getafe managed eight shots of their own and two on target. Mario Martín was sent off in the 87th minute for a second yellow, which ended whatever was left of the visitors’ evening. They sit 16th with five points and three goals scored in six matches.

Eight goals, fifteen points

Betis have scored eight league goals all season and sit level on points with Real Madrid, three behind Barcelona. Five of their six matches have been wins. Four of those wins finished 1-0: Real Sociedad on 21 August, Valencia four days later, Real Madrid on 4 September and now Getafe. The fifth was a 2-1 at Villarreal on 14 September, where both Betis goals came from home goalkeeping errors.

The one match that broke the pattern broke it badly. Levante won 5-2 in Valencia on 29 August, and five of the six goals Betis have conceded this season came in that single afternoon. Take that game out and Manuel Pellegrini’s side have given up one goal in five league matches.

There is an obvious question buried in those numbers. A side that wins 1-0 four times in six weeks is either very well organised or riding its luck, and from the outside the two look identical until the margins turn. Betis are creating plenty, as 22 shots against a bottom-half side make clear. They are not converting much of it, and Pellegrini has spent most of the month watching opposition goalkeepers play the game of their lives.

What it means at the top

Barcelona are the only Spanish side with a perfect record, six wins from six, and they have scored 28 goals to Betis’s eight. The gap in style between the leaders and the team sitting third on the same number of wins is not subtle. Betis have already beaten Real Madrid, though, and they have taken three points from their first Champions League match in 20 years.

A crowd of 57,792 came out on a Thursday night in Seville for a game settled by one goal before half-time. On current evidence they should expect more of the same.

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