Barça is still intractable and puts pressure on Madrid

Barça this season has a special color. The team led by Xavi suffered tremendously at Villamarín, but achieved what he was looking for, three new points to open a gap in the standings and put pressure on Real Madrid. The goals from Raphinha and Lewandowski in the second half left Koundé’s own goal without effect and extended the state of euphoria for the Catalans.

A boiler. That is what Barcelona found as soon as they jumped to Benito Villamarín. The Verdiblanco fiefdom housed almost 50,000 spectators who vibrated with the anthem, pressed from the beginning and made it clear to Xavi’s men that the first enemy they had to face was the atmosphere. Faced with this environment, the Catalan coach took refuge in his new comfort zone, the 4-4-2 that gave him such good results against substantial rivals such as Atlético or Real Madrid. The man from Egar set up his new eleven of the great events, the one in which Busquets, De Jong, Pedri and Gavi form a midfield capable of dominating any match and the one in which Lewandowski, already back after his sanction, is in charge of making the goals.

Xavi’s plan had as its main objectives to win the battle for possession and incidentally have an extra footballer in the midfield to drown out Carvalho, Canales, Fekir and company. Barça was left halfway in this task in the early stages. Betis is a team that has the weapons to win with the ball, but is also dangerous without it. That became clear to the Catalans after a couple of turnovers ended in a scare for Ter Stegen’s goal and made Xavi frown on the bench. Luiz Henrique, the protagonist on both occasions, shot wide and prevented the alarms from going off for the Barça ship at the start.

This scenario became a constant for Barça in the first half. The culés were not comfortable and they were infected with a dizzying pace that led to a small exchange of blows in which neither of them was accurate. Pedri had it in a one-on-one in which he could not overcome Rui Silva and Canales was also able to score after a maneuver by Fekir, but he ran into Koundé, who aborted the danger and saved the furniture before going through the changing rooms.

faster circulation

After the restart, Barça finally managed to make the game look like what Xavi had outlined in his script. The Barça midfielder circulated the ball faster, made Betis lose their place and the spaces between the lines began to appear, that habitat where Gavi and Pedri perform best. The former entered the clash in time to suffocate the Verdiblancos, while the latter became omnipresent and once again had the chance to give his team peace of mind after a play by Balde, who was very active throughout the clash, which it culminated with a kick that again found the reaction of Rui Silva.

Something was changing and Betis was not seeing it coming. Pellegrini tried to wake up his team with the entry of Guardado and Juanmi, but it was too late. Barça had already put in fifth gear and was going to land two blows that were going to give them the three points. In the first, Frenkie de Jong caught everyone off guard and Balde took the opportunity to assist Raphinha in the race, who only had to push the ball into an empty goal to open a game that Barça was having a hard time chewing. In the second, Araujo combed a corner kick and the ball fell to him at least indicated for the Verdiblancos interests. Lewandowski picked up the leather and shot Rui Silva to score his fourteenth goal in the league, a goal that would ultimately be decisive.

Betis reacted at the last minute, pressed Xavi’s men and even managed to close the gap after an own goal from Koundé in a lateral cross but it was insufficient. Barça leaves Real Madrid eight points behind, who will face Valencia with the obligation to win so as not to increase the gap in the standings.