Straight
Manuel Pellegrini is not a spiteful person.
But those who know him affirm that he does not forget easily either.
At the age of 69, the Chilean has found his place in the world at Betis.
A Cup champion Betis that plays in Europe and that will visit the fiefdom of a historic club like Roma this Thursday (9:00 p.m., Movistar LC).
Another coach resides in the Italian capital, José Mourinho, who has been in a rivalry with the Chilean coach for more than a decade.
Two of the best coaches in European football meet again in an official match almost three years after the last time.
That was when Pellegrini was coaching West Ham and Mourinho, curiously, was in charge of his first match against Tottenham, who won 2-3 on November 23, 2019. In his vast careers,
The two have met a total of 15 times in the Spanish League and in the Premier, with eight wins for the Portuguese, four for Pellegrini and three draws.
Now they will meet Roma and Betis for the first time in a European competition, in this case the Europa League.
"Betis is a quality team with a great coach," said Mourinho himself prior to the clash.
Pellegrini, for his part, was also very polite with whom he was a major rival.
The Chilean highlighted his admiration for Mourinho.
"I don't have any kind of bad vibes with him.
What's more, I only have good words for him and he has them with me.
The relationship is very good”, asserted the coach of the Andalusian team.
“I said and I maintain that going to Málaga was an honor.
Each one owns his words.
That happened in 2010 and then we have faced each other on many occasions and there has been no problem.
I repeat that the relationship is good”, concluded the Chilean coach.
The long road that unites Pellegrini with Mourinho began in 2010, when the Portuguese coach, after making Inter European champion, signed for Madrid and relieved the Chilean on the Madrid bench.
Pellegrini, although he was sentenced by Florentino Pérez in the autumn of that 2009-10 season, was always proud of the numbers achieved by a team that reached 96 points to 99 for Barcelona led by Pep Guardiola, who won LaLiga again.
In his first season, Mourinho saw how Guardiola's Barcelona won the League again, Madrid being second with 92 points, without reaching the figure achieved by Pellegrini, then the highest historical score achieved by Madrid.
In that season, Mourinho made some harsh statements against the Chilean when he was mentioned in a press conference.
“The same thing that happened to Pellegrini cannot happen to me.
The difference with Pellegrini is that if Madrid kicks me out, I'm not going to train at Málaga”, the Portuguese said of a coach who had just signed for the Andalusian team.
Pellegrini, however, never regretted having managed Málaga.
“Whoever says that he wouldn't come to Malaga to train is because he hasn't been here.
It gives me a lot of pride to direct Málaga at this moment, especially in the situation that I came from.
Maybe it hurts many, but it has been the best campaign in the history of Real Madrid in terms of points”, replied the now Betis coach, who once again reiterated in Rome his pride in having coached the team from Malaga.
Mourinho's Madrid, in the first confrontation between the two coaches, would win 7-0 against Pellegrini's Málaga.
The rivalry between both coaches continued in the Premier.
Pellegrini signed for Manchester City in the summer of 2013 and Mourinho was the manager of Chelsea.
The first year the Chilean City won the League with Chelsea second.
The next, Mourinho took his revenge and won the title with City in second place.
In this long journey of two seasons, Mourinho lamented refereeing aid for City and did not stop trying to provoke the current Betis coach with his statements.
One more episode of his rivalry with other coaches like Pep Guardiola, for example.
Mourinho always created an external enemy to defend his interests, while Pellegrini's ethics are very different.
The Chilean flees from the controversy and only usually loses his poise a little when he refers to the arbitration proceedings.
Now, Pellegrini, whose grandparents are of Italian origin, has won the Copa del Rey with Betis and intends to go far in the Europa League.
Mourinho is the coach of Roma, with whom he has won the Conference League, the third continental tournament.
The two teams will play for first place in Group C of this Europa League that the Portuguese already won in 2017. Mourinho is the only coach who has won all European tournaments.
If he beats Betis, moreover, he will become the coach with the most victories in European tournaments in the history of continental football.
4,000 Betis have traveled to see his team in Rome in a match where Fekir will return to the starting lineup after being a substitute in the league match against Celta, where Betis lost 1-0.
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