Pellegrini hopes to capitalise on Man Utd's 7-0 loss ahead of Europa League tie

Former Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini says he enjoyed Manchester United’s 7-0 defeat, as he prepares to take his Real Betis side to Old Trafford.

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Betis travel to United on Thursday night for the first-leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie.

Though United are one of the favourites to win the competition, they go into this match off the back of one of the worst results in their history – a 7-0 loss at arch-rivals Liverpool last Sunday.

Pellegrini, who managed United’s close rivals City from 2013 to 2016, winning the Premier League and two League Cups, revealed that he had watched some of the game and while he liked what he saw, admitted that he doesn’t expect a similar scoreline.

‘Well, really, it was unbelievable! I am a Manchester City fan also, so I was not very sad about what happened,’ the 69-year-old said in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday.

‘I was watching the first 45 minutes because after that we had to play against Real Madrid, so I couldn’t see when Liverpool scored the other six goals.

‘But of course I understand immediately what will happen with Manchester United, so the reality between Liverpool and Manchester is that if you have this amount of goals it will not be easy for them.

‘I don’t think that they will play with the last game in their mind. I think that they will play in their duty, that they have to qualify for the next round of the Europa League.

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‘And also we are not going to start the game thinking that they had a defeat of 7-0 inside them. We play against a difficult team. We must be the best Betis we can do if we want to have a good result here.’

The Chilean manager has done an impressive job at Betis, with the club currently fifth in La Liga after holding Real Madrid to a goalless draw last Sunday.

Thursday night’s clash will be the first ever competitive meeting between the two sides, though they did play each other in a mid-season friendly back in December, with the Spanish side winning 1-0 thanks to a Nabil Fekir goal.

Pellegrini himself will be confident of getting a result thanks to his good personal record against the Red Devils, which stands at five wins and only three losses in 13 games.

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