In the finals they live strong emotionsthe fervor of the stands raises the heart rate of the footballers when they haven’t even jumped onto the pitch, the atmosphere is not that of any other match…And for this reason, “you have to know how to manage your emotions, go out relaxed and calm down” as José Gayà recognized in AS. Those emotions will be lived in two ways in La Cartuja next Saturday, on the one hand, the verdiblanco, the experience will predominate and self-management, on the other, black and white, youth will predominate and the help of leaders.
And it is that the Cup final hostto the oldest team in LaLiga and the youngest, which also has a good handful of homegrown players in its ranks. Or put another way, the Cup final will be that of the veterans (understood as a good concept and not as ‘old’) versus homegrown. The Betis, with a team with an average age of 27.35 years has players like Fekir (28 years), Channels (31 years old) or his own Joaquin (40 years). Meanwhile he Valencia, the youngest team in LaLiga with an average age of 22.55has in its leaders Guedes (25 years), Gaya (26 years old) or Carlos Soler (25 years).
The average age at Betis is 27.35 years, at Valencia 22.55.
Of course, at first glance it may seem that the difference is not that much, especially if one takes into account that the aforementioned Valencian leaders they already won the 2019 Cup final and they know what it is to raise a title with the elastic che, something that at Betis only Joaquín Has got. However, if one carefully analyzes that age difference, it is reflected in the finals that the players of both teams have played. among all the Betis accumulate a total of 45 finals disputed, while the footballers of the Valencia only reach 18 finals. They stand out on the verdiblanco side Claudio Bravo with 9 disputed finals and Bellerin, with 7, both point to starters. While in Valencia the two players who have played the most finals are cillessenwith 4, who will be a substitute, and Guedes, with 5.
For all this, in Valencia there is a feeling widespread among the captains Gayà, Jaume, Soler and Paulista, that they should infect the rest of your experiencebecause players who point to the starting eleven as Mamardashvili, Bryan Gil, Thierry or Guillamón have never played a final with their clubs. Betis is more seasoned in this aspect, although as I pointed out yesterday Fekir “We will have more pressure to play at home.”
Betis players have played 45 finals, while Valencia only 18.