Real Betis 3-5 Barcelona: Antony’s early goal waved aside by rampant Blaugrana
Barcelona moved four points clear at the top of La Liga after a frantic 5-3 win away to Real Betis on Sunday.
Ferran Torres produced a first-half hat-trick and 20-year-old Roony Bardghji also impressed, scoring Barcelona’s third in a rare start for La Blaugrana.
Hansi Flick’s side trailed inside six minutes when Antony defied Barcelona’s offside trap to fire into the roof of the net, but the lead only last five minutes, with Torres getting on the end of Jules Kounde’s cut-back to finish off an impressive team move.
Torres then got his second within two minutes when he converted on the volley, after Bardghji had done good work on the right to put a cross into the box. Bardghji then claimed his own when he collected Pedri’s defence-splitting pass, shifted onto his right and slammed a shot past Alvaro Valles into the top right corner.
Torres then completed his hat-trick just before the interval with a deflected strike to emphasise his side’s dominance.
Lamine Yamal made it 5-1 with a contentious penalty in the second half. A VAR review deemed Marc Bartra to have blocked Marcus Rashford’s shot with a raised arm, even though it clearly bounced off his side before hitting his arm.
Betis took away some of the heftiness from the scoreline when they responded with two goals in the final few minutes. Diego Llorente turned in from close range after a corner and Cucho Hernandez scored a penalty after Kounde clipped Abde Ezzalzouli, but the match had long since slipped from their reach.
