Barca 3, Betis 4: Betis shock Barcelona on Messi’s return
Lionel Messi on Sunday scored two goals in his first match after he returned from his injury spell.
The Barclona ace player converted a spot kick at the 68th minutes and placed in his second goal of the match in the 90th minute in the Camp Nou 7-goal thriller.
Betis restored their two-goal advantage just three minutes through Giovani Lo Celso to stun Barca once again.
Arturo Vidal – on at half time – pulled another back for Barca in what became a frantic finish to the game, which saw Ivan Rakitic dismissed in the dying moments of the match for a second booking of the game.
Chasing the game with ten men, Barca left themselves open and former Real Madrid man Sergio Canales added a fourth for Betis.
Barca struck again at the death with Messi scoring his second of the match, but that would be merely a consolation as Valverde’s side succumbed to only their second La Liga defeat of the season.
Next up for Barcelona is a trip to Atletico Madrid, and Sunday’s slip-up leaves Diego Simeone’s side just a point behind them in second place.
LINEUPS
BARCELONA
Starting XI: Ter Stegen; Roberto, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Arthur; Messi, Suárez, Malcom (4-3-3)
Bench: Cillessen, Semedo, Umtiti, Vidal, Aleñá, Denis, Munir
REAL BETIS
Starting XI: Pau López; Tello, Mandi, Bartra, Sidnei, Junior; Guardado, William, Lo Celso; Joaquín, Loren (5-3-2)
Bench: Robles, Barragán, Feddal, Canales, Inui, Sergio León, Sanabria
MATCH INFO
Competition/Round: 2018-19 La Liga, Matchday 12
Date/Time: Sunday, November 11, 2018, 4.15pm CET (Barcelona & Nigeria), 3.15pm GMT (UK), 10.15am ET, 7.15am PT (USA), 8.45pm IST (India)
Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Referee: Antonio Mateu Lahoz (oh boy)
PREVIEW
Barcelona will be looking for their fourth straight win in La Liga this afternoon.
Indeed, the Spanish champions have been victorious in their last three to rise to the summit, and will fancy their chances of overcoming a Betis side that have lost three of their last four in Spain’s top flight.
Ousmane Dembele’s absence from Ernesto Valverde’s Barcelona squad took attention away from the important return of Lionel Messi and Samuel Umtiti.
Messi was close to making his comeback after breaking a bone in his arm, in the mid-week Champions League clash with Inter but now he is fully ready while Umtiti returns after missing a month and half with a knee problem.
Messi picked up his injury against Sevilla, three weeks and a day ago which saw him miss some big matches including the Clasico, but now he is likely to begin against Betis.
“He has already lost the fear of falling and trying to support it, he is ready to tussle with opponents and I think he is fine,” said Valverde.
It is also in Messi’s favour that Barcelona face a ball-playing team and so there should be fewer aerial battles than normal.
“With Cruyff at Barcelona, I started to see football differently and that was what I liked,” said Betis coach Quique Setien.
“Once I said that I would have given my little finger to have played in that team.”
Setien has turned around Betis in 18 months and while this season the results are not as good as he would have hoped, with just one point from the last 12, he is not going to change his approach.
“We will try to play our football and as much as we can get the ball off Barcelona, when we can’t we will try to defend well,” Setien continued.
Betis have Guardado fit but Loren in attack is a fitness doubt. Setien will look to beat Barcelona for the first time in five attempts.
There could be a chance for Malcom in the Barcelona team as they try to continue the good form that they showed in Europe, on the back of a disappointing display against Rayo last weekend even if they did get the three points.
Victory over Betis would be their fourth on the run and mean that they could go into the international break in relaxed mood. The possibility of Malcom playing is boosted by Coutinho‘s injury and the decision to leave out Dembele.