‘A great night for the history books’
“We put in a top performance, especially in the second half, and came away with an important win. I think our ability to react as a team counted for a lot in this game, and that goes for the players in the starting XI and those who came on as subs. We played really well and fortunately we managed to win and qualify.”
After that play-off against Barcelona, Ten Hag’s side faced a tie against another La Liga team, in the form of Real Betis. Fred recalls the dominant first-leg win over Manuel Pellegrini’s team, which saw the Reds step one foot in the quarter-finals.
“Then we were drawn against another Spanish team, Real Betis,” said Fred. “Spanish teams have got a lot of quality, they try to keep it on the deck and always try to play proper passing football and enjoy possession. In the first game we didn’t play well in the first half, we were only drawing 1-1.
