MADRID — Veteran Real Betis coach Manuel Pellegrini has regularly produced impressive results at the highest level but his failure to win the UEFA Champions League means some hesitate to place him among the managerial elite.
The 73-year-old’s team boast three wins from three in the league phase ahead of Wednesday’s visit to face Borussia Dortmund, the scene of one of the most agonising defeats in his long career.
In 2013, Pellegrini’s Malaga conceded twice in injury time against Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund, to miss out on a Champions League semi-final berth.
It was an especially cruel defeat for Pellegrini, who had attended his father’s funeral in Chile before landing in Germany on the morning of the match.
“They did not want us in the semi-finals,” complained Pellegrini about the officiating afterwards, with Felipe Santana’s winner seemingly scored from an offside position.
That summer Pellegrini moved to Manchester City, winning the Premier League and two League Cups before departing in 2016, without a Champions League trophy.
The evergreen Chilean joined Betis in 2020 and is now enjoying the longest spell in charge of a club in his career, AFP reported.
Pellegrini has stayed faithful to the idea that his teams must entertain and Betis fit the bill, boasting a host of exciting attackers like Isco and Ez Abde.
Pellegrini, who graduated in civil engineering in 1979 while playing at Universidad de Chile, took Betis to their first final in 17 years, winning the Copa del Rey in 2022.
Last season he steered the Andalusians back to Champions League qualification after two decades away from the elite.
“We started the first match of the season… and at the end of the team talk we wrote in green letters — ‘today we begin our journey to the Champions League’,” explained Pellegrini in May.
Pellegrini returning Betis to the big-time is no surprise, given his track record.
The coach turned Villarreal into a Champions League semi-finalist in 2006, with his team knocked out by Arsenal.
Juan Roman Riquelme missed a last-gasp penalty in the second leg which could have taken the game to extra-time on Spain’s east coast.
Pellegrini led Villarreal to a second-place finish in La Liga in 2008, finishing above giants Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.
His success earned him the Real Madrid job in 2009, where he achieved a then-club record 96 points, but was sacked at the end of the season to make way for Jose Mourinho.
Madrid chief Florentino Perez was desperate for the club’s 10th Champions League trophy and thought the Portuguese would deliver it.
Later at City, he was replaced by Pep Guardiola.
After Madrid, Pellegrini helped Malaga reach the Champions League for the first and only time in their history, with their journey ending in Dortmund.
“Manuel Pellegrini doesn’t always get the recognition he deserves, because he has had an incredible career and achieved huge success,” said Lille coach Davide Ancelotti in September.
“Those of us who are just starting out, like me, have immense admiration for him. I don’t know if I’ll manage until his age. I tell myself it’s impossible.”
Betis beat Lille 3-2 in a thriller before going on to overcome Porto and Feyenoord to maintain their perfect European start.
Pellegrini’s side have qualified for European football for six straight seasons and in 2025, reached their first ever European final, in the Conference League, where they were defeated by Chelsea.
Betis beat Malaga on Saturday in La Liga in a happier reunion for Pellegrini than the trip to Dortmund.
“They were three unforgettable years (in charge),” said Pellegrini, who has never believed silverware should be the only measure of a coach or team’s success.
“I don’t take a team to see how many titles I win, but to improve what happened before and do it in my own way,” explained the coach back in 2016.
Fans of Villarreal, Malaga and now Betis, enjoying some of their greatest days under his reign, would likely agree with his approach.
