Only a few days before Barcelona travels to Madrid to confront their archrival in the Copa del Rey they played Real Betis at the Nou Camp in la liga. Betis is based in Seville in the south of Spain. They currently lying 11th place in the league having one just 7 matches and lost 10. Last season they played Barcelona shortly after they won the Club World Cup, similarly to this year, and lost to the Catalans 5-0.
While the huge match is on Wednesday, as the clasico always is – in several people’s minds at least, thoughts on Sunday were on making sure they took all the points in the league to be sure Madrid’s didn't widen from 5 points.
In reality the match started out dangerously on Sunday night when Betis attacked early on and could easily have gone to take the lead right at the beginning. However it Victor Valdes was on form and stopped the visitors from capitalising on their attack.
Soon after though it seemed like it would be another simple victory for Barcelona after going 2 goals up early on thanks to Xavi and Messi. Xavi scored in the ninth minute followed by Messi two minutes later to give Barcelona a good margin for the remainder of the match.
Nonetheless that early lead was eroded by Betis towards the end of the first half and levelled early in the second half. Betis first scored in the 31st minute, eroding Barcelona’s advantage. That advantage was totally eroded five minutes into the second half when Santa Cruz scored again for Betis.
The stand-off continued for much of the rest of the second half and that wasn't till the 72nd minute the balance modified when Betis lost a defender to a second yellow card. A minute later Alexis put the ball home, making it 3-2; and a couple of minutes before the final whistle Leo Messi scored his second of the match to put the score out of the reach of the visitors.
Read a full match report about FC Barcelona v Betis on Simply Barcelona Tickets. If you’d like to see Barcelona play make sure you order FC Barcelona tickets online an avoid disappointment.
