Manuel Pellegrini will send a patched Real Betis side onto La Cartuja on Matchday 34 as the club tries to protect fifth place and keep alive a potential route into the Champions League.
Betis published their confirmed lineup on 2026-05-03: Valles; Bellerín, Llorente, Natan, Ricardo; Amrabat, Fornals; Antony, Lo Celso, Abde; and Cucho Hernández. The selection comes with notable absences after Pellegrini was left without Marc Bartra and Ángel Ortiz through injury, and Junior Firpo and Pablo García were also unavailable.
The numbers underline why this match matters. Betis sit in fifth position, six points clear of sixth-place Getafe, and a win on jornada 34 would be three points that could all but secure that standing — and, depending on this week’s European results, open a path to the Champions League for Spain.
Opposite Pellegrini, Guillermo Almada named Aarón; Nacho Vidal, Dani Calvo, David Costas, Javi López; Fonseca, Colombatto, Thiago; Ilyas, Alberto Reina and Fede Viñas for Real Oviedo. Almada recovered Luka Ilic and Álex Forés into the matchday squad, although Ovie Ejaria and Leander Dendoncker were the only first-team players who did not travel to Seville for Oviedo’s trip.
Oviedo are arriving intent on survival. They go to La Cartuja looking to move to within six points of safety, a swing that would keep their faint escape hopes alive as the season approaches its final act. Betis, meanwhile, are trying to convert a run that included a draw at home to Real Madrid and an away victory over Girona into league stability.
reported around 60,000 spectators were expected at La Cartuja and named Cordero Veg as the match referee. The same outlet noted Betis have occupied fifth place since 2 February and argued this week that, to reach the Champions League, “the Betis has to do their part” — in other words, domestic results must be matched by favourable outcomes in European competition.
There is friction behind the apparent clarity of the task. Betis’ defensive resources are depleted just when they need the stability that comes from a settled back line. Pellegrini has reshuffled before, but losing Bartra and Ángel Ortiz narrows choices against an Oviedo side that will be desperate and compact. Oviedo’s squad decisions also contain a risk: Almada has brought Ilic and Forés back into contention, but leaving Ejaria and Dendoncker at home suggests either fitness management or a calculated gamble about the intensity required in Seville.
The immediate consequence is straightforward. A Betis victory would leave them strongly placed to keep fifth, reduce panic around transfer-window permutations and hand Pellegrini leverage in deciding how to approach the final two rounds. Failure to take three points would tighten the table and hand pressure back to Getafe and other chasing sides, while giving Oviedo a boost in their survival campaign.
For Pellegrini the match is as much about managing absences as it is about tactics. He must balance the short-term demand for points with the longer-term need to protect players for European permutations and the closing fixtures. For Almada, this is a chance to prove his squad can grind results under pressure with a reduced travelling party.
If there is a single, clear thread coming out of these lineups and the stakes attached to jornada 34, it is that Real Betis control the simplest part of their own destiny: win in Seville and the club will leave the weekend with a margin that others will struggle to overturn — and with that, the practical possibility of a Champions League place that, as ABC put it, requires the club to do its part.
