What is the story about?
Barcelona
have made history as the first side to win all 19 home games in a 20-team La Liga season thanks to a 3-1 victory against Real Betis in their final match at Camp Nou on Sunday night. The Blaugrana once again played a fun, entertaining game against Betis and Raphinha scored twice to lead them to the win, but the story of the night was Robert Lewandowski’s farewell as the Pole captained the side and was given a beautiful and emotional send-off by the home crowd.
Reactions & Observations
- The talk before the game was all about Robert Lewandowski’s farewell, but the story of the first half was Raphinha: the Brazilian return to the lineup as a starter on the right wing and put on a show, moving everywhere in the final third and creating chance after chance for himself and his teammates. He also scored a sensational free-kick, wrong-footing the goalkeeper with a perfect strike to put Barça ahead.
- Betis didn’t have many good moments but also created danger through their former Blaugrana winger Ez Abde, who forced an outstanding save from Joan Garcia and gave Jules Kounde all kinds of trouble with his pace and skill on the wing.
- Barça had the better chances in the half but couldn’t score more than one goal, and had a narrow lead at the break as they tried to make history and secure a perfect home record for the season.
- The start of the second half did not have a lot of quality as both sides mostly negated each other and couldn’t create meaningful offense, but Barça were gifted a second goal at the hour mark as Héctor Bellerín forgot he no longer played for the home team and passed the ball straight to Raphinha at the edge of the box. The Brazilian couldn’t miss, and he scored with his last touch before being substituted at the end of a fantastic individual performance.
- Betis received a gift of their own shortly after, but this time it was from the referee as he was called to the VAR screen and gave a penalty when Isco kicked the floor inside the box but Gavi was punished for being too close and breathing next to Isco, who scored from the spot to bring Betis back in the contest.
- The hosts would quickly restore their two-goal lead thanks to a fantastic strike from outside the box by João Cancelo, and Barça were once again in control with 20 minutes to go. Then in the 84th minute came the moment of the night as Robert Lewandowski was given a beautiful, emotional send-off by the Camp Nou crowd and was in tears as he left the pitch and was replaced by Marc Casadó.
- The final whistle came to end a historic night for Barça, who are now the first team with a perfect home record in a 20-team La Liga campaign. The farewell to Lewandowski was absolutely beautiful, and the final game of the first season back at Camp Nou went about as well as it could have. Well done, boys!
