Relaxed Real Betis ready for Sevilla challenge

You can make a pretty safe guess, based solely on pre-game preparations, as to which of Seville’s football clubs is the most frantic, and which the most confident, ahead of Sunday’s Gran Derbi (11:30 a.m., TSN+).

Sevilla FC manager Matías Almeyda — currently serving a seven-match ban after confronting the officials in a 1-1 draw with Alavés earlier this month — gave his players a rare Tuesday off, and he broke with tradition when he held his final practice of the week behind closed doors.

City rival Real Betis Balompié, meanwhile, enjoyed a combined squad-staff lunch on Thursday, and manager Manuel Pellegrini’s Friday training session was open to the public.

There’s no hiding it. Sevilla, just five points above the relegation places, is panicking. Betis, presently fifth in La Liga, is chilling. And it wants its opponent to know it’s chilling.

Look, there’s Héctor Bellerín at lunch, bemused as club CEO José Miguel López Catalán rubs his shoulders. And there’s Chucho Hernández, eating with his sunglasses on. Álvaro Fidalgo and Natan are hamming it up for the camera. It’s all going on Instagram, after all.

More than mind games, Betis’ performative relaxation is the rub-it-in-your-face revelry of a neighbour who, after decades of struggling to keep up with the Joneses, has parked a Mercedes on the driveway.

Twelve years ago, for example, as Betis was headed for relegation, Sevilla was winning the Europa League. Los Heliopolitanos celebrated promotion the following spring, but Sevilla put a damper on the party by parading a second successive Europa League triumph. Los Nervionenses claimed it for a third time in a row the season after that.

So you can appreciate why Real Betis are savouring the current change in fortunes. And if you’d hoped they might at least be magnanimous in this moment, you’d be disappointed. Good manners might require the club to head humbly into the derby. Instead, it’s given Spanish football the story of little Baelo.

Just eight-years-old, Baelo is a Betis supporter. He also found a lost wallet recently — one that contained three Sevilla membership cards. Where a partisan fanatic might have had a bit of fun with the discovery, the dutiful boy and his proud father delivered the wallet to Sevilla’s club offices. He even wrote a kind letter to its owner.

This very normal behaviour was found out by Betis and trumpeted from the Andalusian rooftops. The Gran Derbi might be the country’s most hostile, but here was a child who had assumed the burden of lowering the temperature.

Magnanimous? Hardly. Exploitative? Absolutely.

In any event, Seville’s mayor has also sought to calm the build-up to an encounter that has occasionally got out of control. On Wednesday, Jose Luis Sanz welcomed Betis president Angel Haro and Sevilla counterpart Jose Maria del Nido Carrasco to the City Hall’s Chapter Room, which exhibits a series of paintings by Francisco de Zurbarán.

Reiterating his belief that Sevilla-Betis is Spain’s most important rivalry, the mayor also challenged both sides to “demonstrate the greatness of Seville in the Gran Derbi” — a not-so-subtle instruction to keep things civil at La Cartuja.

The game is considered “high risk” by the Spanish authorities, and 400 National Police officers will be present at and around the stadium, in addition to the Civil Guard and local law enforcement.

As to the actual 90 minutes of the derby, there’s simply no predicting the outcome of this type of showdown.

Sevilla, although facing the largest gap in points with Betis since 1997, is coming off a desperately-needed win at Getafe, which was preceded by draws with Girona and Alavés. The glass-half-full analysis would count that as a three-match unbeaten streak. And, disregarding an early-February loss at Mallorca, a previous draw with Elche and win over Athletic Bilbao means Sevilla has lost just one of six.

Real Betis, meanwhile, has lost only twice in 2026. But it also drew Rayo Vallecano 1-1 last Saturday despite scoring first.

In an interview with Marca, Betis goalkeeper Adrián smartly admitted that “it doesn’t matter what form each team is in” right now, that recent results “don’t mean anything at all.”

Looking back on previous derbies, Sevilla striker Akor Adams told Sporty TV that “it’s like you own the city if you win.”

Sevilla has typically claimed ownership. We’ll soon find out if its frenetic preparation, or the laid back passive aggression of Real Betis, will see it change hands.

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