[ad_1]
Barcelona beat Real Betis by five goals to two at the Camp Nou, on the ninth day of the Spanish League.
Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann, Lionel Messi (twice) and Pedri scored the goals for Barcelona, while Tony Sanabria and Lauren Moron scored the goals for Betis.
Barcelona raised their score to 11 points in eighth place out of 7 games, leaving two games postponed on their balance sheet.
Betis stayed at 12 points in seventh place out of 9 games.
Consequently, Barcelona stopped its run of negative results in the Spanish League, since it had 4 games without victory, drawing against Sevilla and Deportivo Alaves, and defeating it by Getafe and Real Madrid.
On the other hand, Betis coach Manuel Pellegrini was unable to beat Barcelona for the 17th consecutive game, as he last defeated the Blaugrana when he was Villarreal coach in 2008.
Betis also failed to keep a clean sheet against Barcelona for the 34th consecutive game, as they last did in 2002.
The most outstanding news was the return of the legend Leo Messi, since he had not scored or scored goals in the last 5 matches of the Spanish League, but he rose strongly with two goals after entering as a substitute at the beginning of the second half.
As for his coach Ronald Koeman, he will survive the taunts of Joaquín Sánchez, captain of Real Betis, who has been a great feud with him since they worked together in Valencia 12 years ago.
Joaquín said a few days ago that “he would not take Koman to work at Betis, not even as a locker room worker”, following the series of hostile statements by the veteran Spanish winger towards his former Dutch coach.
The best news
The Barcelona formation brought big news, with legend Lionel Messi remaining on the bench for the first time in nearly a year.
On the other hand, Ronald Koeman continued to trust Sergio Busquets despite calls to pay Miralem Pjanic.
As for the formation of Real Betis, Claudio Bravo returned to the Camp Nou and started with captain Joaquín Sánchez, Coman’s enemy.
10 crazy minutes
The game witnessed a torrent of chances achieved in the first ten minutes, alternating between the two goals, with the advantage of the owners of the field.
The first wasted came from Antoine Griezmann, who received a wonderful pass back from Ansu Fati in the fifth minute, but the Frenchman fired outside the goal despite having time and space.
The return came to Fati himself in the sixth minute with a right-footed shot in the far corner, but he got closer to the goal.
The first threat from Betis came from left-back Alex Moreno, one of the stars of the game, in the eighth minute, and while Busquets tried to keep the ball away, he almost accidentally hit his net.
At the same minute, Sergio Canales took a corner, which was received by William Carvalho with a powerful header, but Marc-Andre ter Stegen continued with what he had been used to for years and saved Barcelona again.
The response came very quickly seconds later through Fati, who fired into the narrow corner of Bravo, but the Chilean captain defeated his former team.
The attacks did not stop, so Griezmann launched in the 11th minute and fired a shot that, in turn, went over the post.
The goal is finally
In the 22nd minute, the net was finally shaken, by Frenchman Osman Dembélé, who burst in and fired a shot with his left foot that hugged Bravo’s net.
Barcelona had the opportunity to double the score in the 26th minute through Griezmann, who received a great pass with Pedri’s heel, but as usual wasted it.
Griezmann’s biggest scoring opportunity came in the 31st minute, when the referee awarded a penalty after Algerian Issa Mandi blocked Fati.
In the absence of Messi, Griezmann proceeded to implement, but was also spoiled after Bravo responded to the penalty, and it was he who accompanied him at Real Sociedad for the last 5 years.
That was the first kick that Griezmann made with the Barcelona shirt, since he had wasted 4 consecutive shots, 3 with France and one with Barcelona under the eyes of Messi.
Betis moved again, so Moreno started from the left and sent a cross to former Barcelona player Christian Teo in the 39th minute, but the latter’s shot went slightly over the crossbar.
Immediately before the end of the first half, Tony Sanabria tied Betis with a powerful shot from inside the area, and refused to celebrate after scoring the net against a team that grew up in its youth.
Help, Messi!
Coman did not wait more than 45 minutes, and decided to pay Messi as Fati’s substitute between halves … to turn the game around.
Messi only needed 4 minutes to contribute to the goal to advance to Barcelona without even touching the ball.
The Argentine star missed the center of Jordi Alba, deceiving the defense and the Betis goalkeeper, and the ball arrived safely to Griezmann, who could not have wasted before the empty goal, to overtake Barcelona in the 49th minute.
The goal is Griezmann’s 200th in his club career, with 53 with Real Sociedad, 130 with Atlético de Madrid and 17 with Barcelona.
Betis tried to respond, Sanabria hit point-blank range, but Ter Stegen saved a stop.
A new Algerian gag
Just when she committed a penalty in the first half, Mandy did it again in the second half in the 58th minute when she banished Dembélé’s shot off the goal line with her right arm.
Referee Guillermo Cuadra Fernández needed the help of a video technician to calculate the kick in the 60th minute and show Mandy the red card.
This time Messi was in the field, and of course he did not waste it and scored with great skill against Bravo.
Messi scored his 100th career penalty kick of 127 attempts, with a 79% success rate.
In minute 62, Joaquín Sánchez, who was absent, left the stadium, Christian Tio also left, and were replaced by Aitor Roebal and Víctor Ruiz.
Dembélé left in the 66th minute and Francisco Trenceau took his place.
The most influential change at Betis came in the 71st minute when forward Lauren Morón entered Sanabria, and it only took them 3 minutes to close the gap after Moreno crossed Betis’s best player.
Koeman sent Griezmann off in the 78th minute and he was replaced by Martin Braithwaite, and the Frenchman looked very confused when he left.
In the 82nd minute, Messi killed the game after a superb heel pass from Sergi Roberto, who finished off the Argentine with a missile shot into the ceiling of Bravo’s net.
To be Messi’s first goal from a mobile game this season, after 6 goals, all of which were from penalties.
Messi’s last moving goal dates back to August 8 against Napoli, meaning he spent 1,184 minutes with the club and the unmarked selection of a moving ball.
The game is the 83rd in the history of Messi, who enters as a substitute with Barcelona, and has scored a total of 38 goals for the Blaugrana after entering from the bench.
But in the Spanish league in particular, Messi is the third best substitute in history with 26 goals, behind Julio Salinas and Di Paola, who add 28 and 27 goals, respectively.
Barcelona finally finished the match to perfection when young Pedri scored his first career La Liga goal in the 90th minute after a cross from Roberto.
Read also:
Extension of the loan of the Zamalek player to the Union
Manchester United survive the Everton trap
