Parrott <\/a>arrived for the final 22 minutes plus stoppage time.<\/p>\nThe ball bounced off the Colombian in his first involvement. Later, he was easily held off by Marc Cucurella as they chased the ball down the touchline. Cucurella happily let it bounce out of play for a Madrid throw, as Cucho flailled, like a toddler trying to break free from a parent\u2019s grip.<\/p>\n
He fired wide of goal after a fine tee-up by Antony and didn\u2019t win an aerial duel all night.<\/p>\n
Then came Parrott. Suddenly the ball stuck. Battles were won. And so was the game.<\/p>\n
Betis historian Alfonso Del Castillo explained in a chat with me on Saturday afternoon in one of Seville\u2019s wonderful tapas bars that Parrott\u2019s physicality would have made him a hero before any winner against the hated Real Madrid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fans here love a strong forward and we haven\u2019t had one in a long time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll hear more from Alfonso later in the week on his tireless work bringing the legend of Real Betis\u2019s Irish La Liga-winning manager Patrick O\u2019Connell back to life.<\/p>\n
As for Parrott, this has been a long time coming. How sweet it must be that Friday\u2019s landmark moment in his career came against Jose Mourinho.<\/p>\n
If the fact that Mourinho gave him his Premier League debut as a 17-year-old in 2019 wasn\u2019t widely known among Betis fans before Friday\u2019s game, it was a leading topic of conversation afterwards.<\/p>\n
Mourinho\u2019s faith in Parrott waned soon after he handed the then-teenager the matchball after his Premier League bow against Burnley.<\/p>\n
What followed were a series of struggles on loan in the Championship and League One, before Parrott took a leap of faith and moved to the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
There, the potential that marked him out as a teenage prodigy began to be fulfilled.<\/p>\n
The only question now, after his three impressive performances so far at Real Betis is, just how good can he be?<\/p>\n
The locals in Seville are convinced he is the real deal. Spain\u2019s football journalists, in Saturday morning\u2019s papers, were busy throwing flowers at the Dubliner and his old-school centre-forward style.<\/p>\n
And the feeling is mutual. Parrott has landed on his feet with this move, setting up camp in one of the most beautiful cities on the planet.<\/p>\n
Speaking late on Friday night to the couple of Irish journalists that went to cover his home debut, he said: \u201cLiving in Spain in a beautiful city like Seville, beautiful weather and a beautiful club as well, the first two weeks have started really well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a great next step for me. There’s not much more I can ask for at this stage in my career to come away here to a massive club like Spain and play in the Champions League.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven in games like tonight, it’s something that’s going to further my development and help me to keep getting better. I think that’s what it’s all about at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next up is tomorrow night\u2019s long-awaited return to the Champions League and a trip to face French side Lille.<\/p>\n
Parrott was already thinking about that as the enormity of Friday\u2019s goal was still sinking in.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s another chance to show that he is in the early days of his ascent, this time on the biggest stage in the club game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s important to allow yourself to get high when the moments are this high,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball is funny because you can score a goal like that and then you have a game again in three days and you have to switch and focus on the next game because it’s also the first Champions League game for the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been 20 years or so, so it’s very important.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, I’ll have tonight to enjoy. I’ll have some family members and friends to enjoy with them. Tomorrow it’s back to focusing again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stragglers by the burger vans-cum-mobile bars on that dusty plot next to La Cartuja would raise a toast to that.<\/p>\n
Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“In front of the press box, the B\u00e9ticos jumped out of their seats. They hadn\u2019t seen centre-forward play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[30238,1139,109,28197],"class_list":["post-81610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seville","tag-plus","tag-real-betis","tag-seville","tag-troy-parrott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n![\"Troy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/0_Troy-Parrott-celebrates.jpg\")
<\/p>\n