With only 8 points ahead of Real Madrid, winner of promoted Almeria earlier in the afternoon (4-2), FC Barcelona had to carry out the same operation as their Madrid dolphin with the reception of Real Betis, first European and nine Champions League units, as part of the 32nd day of La Liga. To do this, Xavi Hernandez took advantage of the return of Andreas Christensen, back to competition after a month of absence. Pedri and Frenkie de Jong were lined up in midfield, while Ousmane Dembélé, also back in the squad, had to wait for his resumption of competition.
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The Catalan outfit controlled the start of the game by putting their foot on the ball, but did not quickly find spaces in the opposing defense. We had to wait until the end of the first quarter of an hour to see Christensen crucify Rui Silva with a header from close range (1-0, 14th). By receiving two warnings in just 9 minutes, Edgar Gonzalez left his teammates outnumbered (24th, 33rd). Enough to leave more opportunities for Barça, who was taking the break thanks to Robert Lewandowski, for his second goal this week (2-0, 36th), for his 19th goal of the season in the league (2 goals ahead of Karim Benzema in the scoring charts).*
Barca on the move
A few minutes later, Sergio Busquets launched Raphinha deep, to allow the Brazilian, with two touches, to turn into a scorer after his superb cross for his Danish teammate (3-0, 39th). Back from the locker room, Xavi’s men managed the rhythm of the second half much more, creating a few chances without finding the fault to widen the gap a little more. The Barcelona technician took advantage of the lead to give Dembélé some playing time on the right wing of the FCB attack. Also entering during the game, Ansu Fati wanted to find RL9 but pushed Guido Rodriguez to put the ball in his own net (3-0, 82nd).
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At only 15 years and 10 months old, the young Spanish-Moroccan nugget Lamine Yamal was also playing her first minutes as a professional and was not far from offering a caviar to Dembélé, who narrowly missed the ball in front of the opposing goalkeeper (89th) . With this big victory, FC Barcelona is recovering from its defeat at Rayo Vallecano and records a 24th clean sheet in La Liga, to regain its 11-point lead over Real Madrid. Real Betis, meanwhile, are not moving from their sixth-place finish and could see Athletic Club back on par with their trip to Mallorca on Monday.
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