Aitor Ruibal: “What used to be a dream is now an obligation”

The versatile Catalan player Aitor Ruibal trust that the Real Betis able to turn the situation around and react after four consecutive defeats to enter European competition for the fourth year in a row. “This is football. It’s a bad streak. If we knew what the problem was and how to fix it we would have done it. And then we’ll win, but it’s not that easy. It’s time to be critical of ourselves, to give a little more to everyone, because the situation is what it is and we must turn it around. The team is good, we are confident and this is the basis for everything to change. Goals are goals. We have excited a lot of people these four years and what a dream is now an obligation. There are still eight days left, then we can’t talk anymore. We will try to get the European place. The most important point is now. We will give everything because the first ones who want to win are us. What a challenge? Yes, but it’s also football,” he hinted. Ruibal in Seville can handle it.

“I was very hurt to be eliminated from the Europa League”

He Real Betis They are eighth in LaLiga, after four recent defeats, but in Europe they have a lot to ask for: “Leaving the Europa League hurt me a lot, because it was in our hands, but the Conference game is it’s been very different since the first leg. What happened with the tickets, getting used to the fact that it’s going to be a very important game… The atmosphere inside is already different. It’s a bunch of things that we have to reverse, because we’re playing , but there are many details that can be avoided and it helps. We always go out 100% but it’s true that many times there are things that get contagious. It is past, obviously. It was something horrible that we don’t want to repeat. Then we went to Zagreb and I think we made “A beautiful game in the midst of difficulties. Then you are left with a goal. This is shit, sorry for the word. We are now focused on these games, we want to get into Europe no matter what.”

The elimination before the Alavés In the Cup, another failure: “When the attitude is not good, it is not good,” Ruibal admitted. competitiveness. Then other factors come in, but if you don’t have attitude any team will beat you. And on that day it was obvious that there wasn’t one, for all I knew, but there wasn’t one.”

Expectations and needs have grown exponentially in the Legs in recent years and now the team is in a phase of transition and deep renewal: “The transition of the team does not last two or four years. It’s a long transition for an aging team. This is not the transfer of the team itself, but of the whole club. And that is achieved. Betis competes every year for Europe and that was not possible eight years ago. I went to the stadium when I was in the reserve team and it was a cemetery. “That’s changed.”

Aitor Ruibal support the work of Pellegriniwhich is starting to be questioned by some sectors, although within the club it has full support: “When things go a bit wrong, there is always someone to blame, but this is a team sport. We are all guilty. From to the president to the last “I don’t think we should look for blame. We play, Manuel directs us, but we are all guilty.”