XtraTime Web Desk – Saturday was a very important day for all Barcelona fans. Their club was suffering in La Liga and had to manage a win in order to stay in hunt for the La Liga trophy. Thus, in this crucial match, Barcelona started with a 4-2-3-1 formation with Antoine Griezmann as the sole striker. Interestingly, after few bad matches, Lionel Messi was dropped from the first team, which no Barca fan thought can ever be possible!
However, Messi’s absence wasn’t a setback for the team as they took a lead at 22nd minute with Ousmane Dembele’s goal. With Messi off the pitch, Griezmann was in-charge of the penalties and he missed one in the 33rd minute. Just before half-time, Antonio Sanabria scored for Real Betis and locked the match at 1-1 in the halftime.
Second half was all about FC Barcelona. Lionel Messi was subbed on for Ansu Fati and the attacking force was strengthen. Barcelona was sending a clear message that they are coming to win this match. Thus, through all the attacks, Griezmann got his goal in the 49th minute with an assist from Jordi Alba.
Minutes later, Barcelona was given another penalty and Real Betis was down to 10 man as Aissa Mandi was given a straight red from the referee. Lionel Messi didn’t make a mistake and Barca was leading 3-1 in the 61st minute. However, Betis didn’t stop fighting. Loren Moron scored in the 73rd minute and kept Real Betis in the match as they were hoping for an epic comeback.
Their entire effort went into vain when Messi scored his second in the 82nd minute and the youngster Pedri scored in the 90th minute mark. Thus, Barcelona won comfortably by a margin of 5-2. With this win, Barcelona currently stands at 8th in the points table with 11 points in 7 matches. Real Madrid has 16 points in same number of matches while Atletico Madrid has 17 points in 7 matches.