Barcelona remain perfect to start the season and have made it nine wins out of nine in La Liga thanks to a wild 5-2 victory away to Real Betis at La Cartuja on Saturday evening. Another hugely entertaining contest between Betis and Barça featured plenty of controversy and some beautiful goals, and Lamine Yamal led the way with a goal and an assist as the Blaugrana secured another victory in a truly choatic game in Seville.
Barça made an excellent
start, dominating the ball, easily breaking the Betis press, and taking the lead 10 minutes in thanks to a world-class goal by Lamine Yamal, who curled a spectacular shot from outside the box into the top corner to put the visitors ahead.
After a very good start the Blaugrana began losing control, wasting easy passes in midfield and making poor decisions in their high pressing structure, allowing Betis to find plenty of spaces in behind as the home team brought real danger to the Barça backline.
Valentín Gómez equalized with a free header inside the box and Héctor Bellerín nearly took the lead on a counter-attack but was denied by a fantastic save by Joan Garcia, and Barça looked in serious jeopardy towards the end of half.
But a header by Rodri from a corner taken by Fermín López restored the Barça lead at a crucial period in the game, and the Blaugrana finally looked like they had a chance to breathe. But Giovani Lo Celso scored an outrageous long-distance goal, and Betis equalized again.
Then VAR intervened, and the goal was disallowed thanks to a handball by Cucho Hernández in the buildup. The halftime whistle came to end a wild half of football, which ended with Barça ahead but was still wide open at the break.
It the first half was already crazy enough, the first 10 minutes of the second half went into overdrive as absolute chaos ensued at La Cartuja.
Barça stopped making the silly mistakes in midfield that cost them in the first half and went back to playing good attacking football, and Gabriel Jesus had a goal disallowed for offside seconds before he scored a tap-in that did count after a great play in midfield from Fermín an an assist from Yamal.
Betis cut into the lead right away as Ez Abde was played through on goal and passed the ball into the net past Joan, and that’s when the chaos took place as a fight broke out after the goal and Facundo Bernal was shown a straight red card for headbutting Yamal.
All of that madness took place before the hour mark and the crowd was absolutely on fire, but Betis couldn’t capitalize on the momentum from their second goal and the man advantage tipped the game in Barça’s favor.
Rodri and Pedri finally took control of the ball, and the Catalans slowed down the pace and restored their two-goal lead as a free-kick from Yamal was blocked and Pau Cubarsí was quickest to the rebound to set up Eric Garcia for a tap-in.
Hansi Flick was able to rest Yamal and send in his captain for the final stretch as Raphinha made his return from injury, but it was another substitute who sealed the victory as Dani Olmo scored a beauty from outside the box to make it 5-2 with 10 minutes to go.
The fifth goal ended any hopes for Betis and Barça were able to cruise to the finish, but there was bad news right at the end as Eric Garcia had to come off with an apparent muscle injury and both teams finished the game with 10 men.
The final whistle came to end an insane contest in Seville as Barça and Betis once again gavef fans and incredible show with absolutely everything one could ask from a meeting of the two best teams in the country.
What a game.
