Real Betis coach Manuel Pellegrini was delighted with their 3-1 win against Rayo Vallecano on Monday night.

The result has Betis sitting in seventh place on the table.

Pellegrini said, “By winning we went from putting five or six teams in the fight for Europe to leaving them eight points behind. There were three key points against a very good team like Rayo Vallecano.

“It was a victory suffered because I think we made a mistake in the second half. We had a first half in which the team played quite well, we scored two goals and had two clear chances. In the second half we unconsciously gave the initiative to Rayo, who dominated although they didn't create many chances for us. Luckily we reacted at the end of the game."

On Guido Rodriguez's performance, he added: “It's difficult to analyze individually who was the best in the game, what interests me is that the team works collectively. The entire defense, including Guido, were very good."