Manchester United have progressed to the quarter-finals of the Europa League after beating Real Betis 1-0 away from home this evening, following the 4-1 thrashing at Old Trafford.

After the game, Erik ten Hag acknowledged that Real Betis are a good team, currently 5th in La Liga, and they had been aware of the threat the posed. Speaking to BT Sport, Ten Hag was aware of some of our issues in the first half but was pleased with our second half showing.

I’m happy, but we like challenges, and we knew before that this is really good team. We have seen it against Real Madrid, against Barcelona. But we beat them twice so I think we have performed very well.

I think there were some moments in transition when they could break, we had to avoid that, we had to keep more control of the ball, to use the overload in the midfield but we didn’t always do it. Second half was much better. But also then, the energy was out of the opponent, especially after you get the first goal.

I think second half we were much better on the ball, much more calm, we kept the ball in the opponent’s half and let them run. And then you see, you create chances.

Facundo Pellistri made his full debut this evening and put in a good performance, even with the ridiculous yellow card he was shown early on, and Ten Hag was happy with how he played.

I think all the players did very well, once again. Players who come in with us can do a good job, gave a good performance, so we not only have 11 players, we have a squad. For Facundo, he’s great to come in, he had some good moments, he has a good performance in training but a game is different. In the start, he has to come in but you saw after some minutes he had belief and he had some really good actions, he definitely did his job. I was really pleased with his performance.