On Saturday evening, in the thirty-second round, Barcelona took a new step towards winning the Spanish Football League title by beating their hosts Real Betis 4-0.
Barcelona have been chasing their first title in the Spanish league for three years since being kicked out of the Champions League and Europa League before losing to their historic rivals Real Madrid in the golden square of the King’s Cup.
Barcelona have won the La Liga title 26 times before, most recently in the 2018/2019 season.
Barcelona lead the table with 79 points, 11 points ahead of Real Madrid, with six rounds to go before the end of the season, and Betis’ tie for sixth place with 49 points.
Real Madrid beat Almeria 4/2 earlier on Saturday.
Three goals from Danish Andreas Christensen in the 14th minute, Polish player Robert Lewandowski in the 36th minute and Brazil’s Rafinha Aguirre in the 39th minute helped Barcelona to win in the first half.
In the second half, Betis’ Guido Rodriguez scored an own goal in the 82nd minute.
Real Betis played with ten men from the 33rd minute and suffered a major shock when substitute Edgar Gonzalez was sent off.
Betis made an emergency substitution with Edgar Gonzalez coming off in the 11th minute for Luis Felipe to come off after an injury.
Barcelona went ahead with an early goal in the 14th minute through Christensen, who met Rafinha’s pass with a powerful header into the net.
Gonzalez was sent off for a second yellow card after a strong tackle on Petrie.
After a Jules Conte pass in the 36th minute, Barcelona took advantage of a lack of numbers in Betis’ line and added Lewandowski’s second goal with a brilliant shot.
Three minutes later, Rafinha scored the Catalan club’s third goal when he received a pass from Sergio Busquets inside the penalty area and fired a powerful ball into the right corner of the Betis goal, where the referee initially disallowed the goal. Offside, but return, count after return to video tech (mouse).
Juan Miranda put Betis up a goal in the 53rd minute with a powerful shot from inside the penalty area, but goalkeeper Marc der Stegen saved the situation.
Betis’ right post denied Lewandowski to score Barcelona’s fourth goal in the 57th minute.
Barcelona missed a fresh chance when Jules Conte headed the ball past Ronald Araujo, but the ball went straight into the net.
Eight minutes before the end of the game, Betis player Guido Rodriguez scored an own goal.