Real Betis 2-3 Barcelona, Match Summary: Messi for the rescue

First-half

The gargantuan effort in Granada brought a lot of fatigue to the Blaugrana squad. Three players, Lionel Messi, Frenkie de Jong, and Pedri rested whilst the backup side wanted to put a good showing.

De Jong’s rest did not last long as Ronald Araujo landed awkwardly on his ankle and had to be substituted off. Real Betis had started bombing down Barcelona’s right side with Alex Moreno making it his own. The Spaniard stayed back as Barcelona grew into the game.

Araujo’s partner, Clément Lenglet, had a superb night at the back. The Frenchman stopped a dangerous chance when the Uruguayan was not on the pitch, but Culés will remember a less glorious action from him.

Barcelona attempted yet another short corner before the 30th-minute mark, and Jordi Alba whipped in a cross of the highest quality towards Lenglet. The centre-back missed the target from point-blank range. Barça would rue this chance as Betis got on the counter before the half and Emerson’s cross found the in-form Borja Iglesias. The ‘Panda’ scored the tap-in.

Several aspects had to change at half-time. The Catalans did not work as hard as they can and were comprehensively behind.

Second-half

When you have the best player in the world on the bench, changing things is easy. Messi turned the game on its head, literally.

Before the Argentine’s entrance, Ousmane Dembélé and Oscar Mingueza combined for Barça’s only shot on target. On came the captain, and Barcelona found themselves ahead for the first time in the game. He sent Dembélé through, and the Frenchman gave it back to Messi whose shot perfectly struck the bottom corner. Then, Messi’s pass split the whole Betis defence, and Alba sent through Antoine Griezmann. The Frenchman eventually got lucky as Victor Ruiz helped the ball on its merry way.

Barcelona is struggling to find chances, has only one shot on goal (Mingueza), is 0-1 behind…

But then Messi comes on and 2 minutes later scores the equaliser from his first shot on goal. Genius. pic.twitter.com/Ozs3VZs1Hn

— Barça Universal (@BarcaUniversal) February 7, 2021

Betis kept fighting though. Sergio Busquets brought down Nabil Fekir on the edge of the area, whose free-kick found Ruiz’s head for the equaliser. Sergio Canales, Betis’ equivalent of Messi, came on and created two goalscoring chances for his side. The Spaniard’s corner found Ruiz’s header and a few moments later he sent through a teammate, but Marc-André Ter Stegen was too good as he stopped both chances.

Still, Barcelona showed their champion’s mentality with a late winner, once again. Francisco Trincão, who seemed cursed in front of goal after the Granada comeback, scored a rocket from the edge of the area to win it for Barça. In the end, Barcelona got a great win and another hard-fought one.