Match Review : Betis vs Barcelona (2-2)

An away trip to Betis is difficult, but an afternoon trip to Betis bumps the difficulty up just a bit. Barca continued their domestic season with an away trip to the rowdy Estadio Benito Villamarín, hoping to come away with 3 points and find some winning traction again in La Liga.

Over the last month, Barca has struggled to secure wins in the league, coming up short in some matches and blowing leads in others. This away trip was never going to be an easy way to reverse the trend, but this club is one of the largest in the world because they’re expected to win these type of matches, so excuses are out the window.

So let’s see how Barca fared, with a passionate and loud Betis crowd awaiting them.

First half

The first half was a bit of a topsy turvy one.

In the first few minutes, Barca struggled to find control. Betis had a lot more energy and it was reflected in the danger they created early. Luckily there weren’t any repercussions from the early swarm from Betis, but Barca was put on high alert.

After some time though, Barca began to grow into the match and show why they’re the current league leaders. As a result of their newfound calmness, Barca were able to construct a beautiful goal to open the scoring.

Lamine Yamal and Pedri combined on the right flank, before Pedri found a streaking Jules Kounde bombing down the right flank. He then squared it to an open Robert Lewandowski, who then simply tapped it home to give Barca the 1-0 lead.

Atfer this goal though, the first half kind of strolled along. You ever walk on a nice sunny day with comfortable temperatures and no worries to boot? Yeah, that’s what the rest of the half felt like.

Both teams tried their hardest to create, but the end chances just weren’t there.

However that isn’t how the rest of the match went. The second half was a circus and if you didn’t watch, poor you for missing out on all the action.

Second half

As said earlier, the second half was a circus.

There was nonstop action, plenty of drama, and plenty of heart stopping moments.

Let’s start with Betis’s equalizer, which came from a penalty conceded by Frenkie De Jong. De Jong was trying to defend Vitor Roque as he made a run into Barca’s penalty area, but Frenkie was too reckless and conceded a penalty.

In the end, it was converted by Giovani Lo Celso, giving this match some life and a lot of energy.

Things were a bit quiet until late in the match, when Barca took the lead once again, courtesy of Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres. This was created all by Yamal, as he slid past two Betis defenders before dishing out a well timed pass into Ferran Torres.

Torres then slid a near post finish past the Betis keeper and into the back of the net to give Barca a 2-1 lead.

The goal was initially ruled offsides, but was quickly changed to a good goal after some intervention from VAR. All Barca had to do then was hold on to the lead, secure 3 points, and finally end their recent string of La Liga struggles.

However, it seemed Barca didn’t get the memo, as they conceded in extra time to give Betis a share of the points. The match ended in a 2-2 draw, continuing Barca’s recent La Liga struggles.

Final word

At this point, what more is there to say?

Barca simply has to stop choking away leads if they want to seriously win La Liga this season. Will they eventually do that? Who knows, but it’s a real problem and it needs to be solved as soon as possible.

This club had a real chance at running away with La Liga too, but they choked that away and now they;re going to have to pray Madrid drops points again, which doesn’t seem all that likely.

Barca’s next match

Barca’s next match will be an important UCL match against Dortmund on Wednesday night.

See you all then!