Barcelona 3-1 Betis: Messi’s brace keeps Barça on track

Full-time: Barcelona 3-1 Betis
Goals: Messi (15′, 86), Jordi o.g. (66′)
Match date: April 5, 2014
Stadium: Camp Nou
Competition: La Liga
Barcelona line-up: Pinto, Adriano, Mascherano, Bartra, Daniel Alves, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, Alexis Sanchez, Lionel Messi.

Barcelona hosted and defeated Real Betis by 3-1 this Saturday afternoon and will remain 1 point behind Atletico Madrid in La Liga, and two points on top of Real Madrid, who still sits in 3rd place with only 6 fixtures left in the league.

Gerardo Martino preferred to rest Neymar for this match against Betis and announced a starting line-up with an attacking front formed by Lionel Messi, Alexis Sanchez and Pedro. The Brazil international only joined the game later in the second half, when the 3 points were pretty much wrapped up already. The opener came in after a spectacular play from Alexis Sánchez, who first controlled a really high ball with a world-class touch and then basically played around with Betis‘ defense inside their own box, until he ended up getting clipped in one of his legs. First penalty-kick in this game to Barça and Lionel Messi wouldn’t waste this chance to send his side into the lead and add another goal to his tally this season.

Barcelona increased their lead already in the second half, when Adriano got to move up on the pitch and force a Betis defender to commit a capital mistake. The Brazilian left-back saw his pass being deflected by Jordi, and the ball went straight into the back of the net, as Adán looked helpless and unable to to reach to it. The hosts were 2 goals up but to be fair, they weren’t performing extremely well until that point.

Things got a bit more agitated shortly after, when Betis managed to score a counter-attack goal in the 68th minute of the game. Rubén Castro exploited several visible weaknesses in Barça‘s defense, and saw his strike getting past several defenders and Pinto himself, who has been replacing Victor Valdés since his teammate got injured on his knee a couple weeks ago.

Barça bounced back though and sealed the deal in the 86th minute, following another penalty-kick converted by Lionel Messi. Neymar was already on the pitch by then, but it would be the Argentinian scoring again, and he’s now tied with Atletico Madrid‘s Diego Costa as 2nd top scorer in La Liga with 25 goals, just 3 goals behind Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo. The Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona Champions League second leg will be played next Wednesday and we can probably expect that Neymar returns to the starting eleven by then.

Sources: fcbarcelona.com / dailymail.co.uk

Watch the highlights video from Barcelona 3-1 Betis match:

Barcelona and Neymar Jr match photos against Betis: