Andreas Christensen, Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha have been heading in the right direction as Barcelona thrashed 10-man Real Betis 4-0 on Saturday to tighten their grip on high spot and moved a step nearer to their twenty seventh LaLiga title.
With solely six video games remaining, Barca recovered from a disappointing midweek loss at Rayo Vallecano and moved to 79 factors and prolonged their result in 11 factors over second-placed Real Madrid, whereas Betis stay sixth on 49 factors.
Christensen opened the scoring for Barcelona within the 14th minute with a point-blank header following a cross from Raphinha.
Barca’s job was made simpler by Betis defender Edgar Gonzalez, who got here off the bench within the twelfth minute to interchange an injured Luiz Felipe however was despatched off 21 minutes later after seeing two yellow playing cards for 2 unhealthy tackles.
The locals made probably the most of their benefit earlier than the break, scoring twice inside three minutes because of strikes by Lewandowski and Raphinha.
LaLiga high scorer Lewandowski elevated his haul to 19 for the season with a primary contact shot from contained in the field assisted by Jules Kounde within the thirty sixth minute.
Raphinha needed to wait a few minutes to have fun scoring Barca’s third because the assistant referee had initially dominated out his effort for offside earlier than the choice was overturned following a VAR replay.
“It’s always fine to score and assist, but I think I can always do better,” Raphinha informed Movistar Plus.
“The final sport was very powerful, we would have liked to reply and profitable by a big margin was vital to have extra confidence.
“(Manager) Xavi (Hernandez) warned us and we know what we can do and what we lacked against Rayo. We needed a little more attitude, needed to stay with the ball, and if we want to win the league it has to be like that in every game.”
Barca took their foot off the pedal after the break, snug with seeing out the sport, however managed to increase their lead because of an own-goal by defender Guido Rodriguez, who scored whereas making an attempt to clear an Ansu Fati cross within the six-yard-box.
With the win secured, 15-year-old winger Lamine Yamal turned Barca’s youngest ever debutant when he was introduced off the bench by coach Xavi.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
