The match was decided by a penalty for a hand-ball by Diego Llorente. Dodi Lukebakio converted from the spot on 50 minutes. Afterwards, Pellegrini says the VAR should've acted during the incident's review.
Result:
"Yes, of course, not getting a result in a derby is doubly important, as well as losing the three points you lose to your eternal rival, but unfortunately football is like that. We had a first half with clear goal-scoring chances that their goalkeeper blocked well and then a penalty decided the game, a penalty that at least the VAR has to review to be sure of the referee.
"He hit it with his back turned, his hand was down, he had no intention and the header wasn't even going to go towards goal. The game only turned around. In a game like that, such an important decision has to go to the VAR to review it. It didn't give it, Sevilla grew bigger and it took us a lot of effort to recover.
"That penalty ended up deciding a very even game in which both teams gave everything and very cleanly, which is also important."
Talking to referees:
"No, no, I don't think there was a conflictive or controversial refereeing, far from it. But when there is such an important action, he should go and review it to be sure. And if he then awards the penalty, it's fine, he reviewed it and he estimates it. But I don't think the referee had any influence on the rest of the match because it was disputed, clean and there were no major problems."
A Betis that was less aggressive:
"We tried to recover the ball in the opponent's half to have quick transitions, and that's how the two clear goal-scoring chances we had were. Maybe we had less possession, we were less clear with the ball, but we created those chances, which was when we played better. Then in the second half we really felt the goal after two minutes, maybe in the last 15 minutes we came back a little, but we didn't have any clear chances."