The Europa Conference League playoffs are back this Thursday for what is the third edition of the competition where Real Betis will look to put together another cup run with a meeting against Dinamo Zagreb in Seville.
It's been an excellent rise in the past few years for Real Betis with the club managing to seal four European campaigns in a row after finishing 15th back in 2019/20. Once again, form looks impressive for the men from Seville after finishing sixth last campaign.
Once again, Betis are up into sixth for this season and have now managed to win nine of their 24 La Liga outings, and although this means just 27 points collected in by way of wins, the club have also lost just four games and now managed to avoid a defeat in a further 11 draws - this means just one more loss than Barcelona and two fewer than Atletico Madrid's tally.
Betis' Europa League run, however, was poor. The club suffered a defeat home and away to Rangers and were also beaten by Sparta Praha 1-0 in late November. This has sent them crashing into the Europa Conference League playoffs.
Worse yet, with a defeat to Deportivo Alaves in the Copa del Rey round of 32 in early January, this run in Europe and hopes of getting into another European spot in La Liga is all that is on the cards for them. On the other hand, Betis are still within eight of the Europa League spot of fifth, so there is still a slim chance of heading past Athletic Bilbao, although Real Sociedad, Valencia and Las Palmas are right on their tail in the spots outside of European qualification.
Betis are on a three-game unbeaten run right now, however, with them mananging to defeat Mallorca 1-0 away from home thanks to a winner from Sergi Altimira in the first half. A 1-1 draw with Getafe came soon after with a penalty equaliser from Isco, as Betis also defeated Cadiz last time out with a goal each from Pablo Fornals and Willian Jose.
Dinamo Zagreb come into this one in a rare spot of third in the 1. HNL. They are six points adrift of Rijeka at the top of the table, although a game in hand gives the Croatian giants a chance to jump into within three to keep up their hopes of a seventh title in a row.