Barca recaptures second place on the summit
Barcelona coming back to win high scoring thrillers is becoming a thing for Ronald Koeman after winning 5-3 in the cup in midweek, they beat Betis 3-2 to move back into second place in LaLiga.
Francisco Trincao got the late winner but it was the introduction of Lionel Messi that changed the game. Without Messi on the pitch it was 1-0 to Betis and it may well have stayed that way but with him Barcelona scored three times to take all three points.
Koeman rested his best player ahead of the midweek Spanish Cup semi-final first leg against Sevilla and it did not go well with Borja Iglesias putting Manuel Pellegrini’s side ahead.
Iglesias flopped last season after making a big money move from Espanyol. He was on a run of one goal in 32 games five games back but has now scored four in four.
It was one bad enough that a former Espanyol player scored the goal. It was worse that Emerson, who Barcelona own 50 per cent of, crossed for him to score.
The attacking right-back on loan at Betis until the end of the season centered low and Iglesias beat Marc Andre ter Stegen to make it 1-0 just before half time.
Barcelona started the second half well with Ousmane Dembele sprinting down the right and crossing for Oscar Mingueza whose shot was well saved by Joel Robles. But from a clever pass from Nabil Fekir, Juanma could have doubled the lead.
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Koeman had seen enough by the 57th minute and he brought on Messi. Three minutes later Barcelona were level. With practically his first touch he buried a shot past Joel to make it 1-1 from the edge of the area.
It was now a different game with Messi creating more in his first five minutes on the pitch than those he had replaced had managed in the previous hour.