Barcelona batter ten-man Betis as they inch closer to the LaLiga title
Striding clear at the LaLiga summit and with the title edging ever nearer to being wrapped up, Barcelona took to the pitch at a rainy Camp Nou with confidence coursing through their veins.
It didn’t take long for their dominance to bear fruit either when Betis could only half clear a corner, and as Raphinha returned the ball with interest, Andreas Christensen was on hand to power home his first goal in Barca colours.
As if Betis’ task wasn’t difficult enough at a goal down, Edgar Gonzalez left their chances of a comeback in tatters when he was handed a second yellow card.
In an interesting subplot, Gonzalez was actually introduced as a 13th-minute substitute for the injured Luiz Felipe and Betis’ misery wasn’t to stop there as just moments later Robert Lewandowski doubled Barca’s advantage to realistically end the game as a contest.
If there were any lingering Betis hopes of pulling off perhaps the league’s greatest-ever comeback, they were quickly diffused before the break when Raphinha struck a third for Xavi’s side to rub salt into the wounds of Pellegrini’s men.
Managing to stem the tide in the opening stages of the second half was a small win in itself for Betis, though there still remained a sense of inevitably that Barca would add to their tally.
Team spirit undoubtedly held the key to Betis avoiding being on the receiving end of a whitewash, but some Barca wastefulness also helped, with Raphinha squandering a glorious opportunity to add a fourth for the hosts.
With Guido Rodriguez’s own goal came yet more humiliation for Betis, but for Barca it allowed them to introduce 15-year-old Lamine Yamal to become the club’s youngest-ever player to feature in LaLiga.
Victory moved Barca a step closer to regaining the title, while Betis continue to cling onto sixth spot.