With six games remaining, Xavi Hernandez’s side had an easy night with Edgar Gonzalez’s early dismissal. With his team comfortably winning, Xavi introduced 15-year-old forward Lamine Yamal, who became the club’s youngest player to make his La Liga debut.
Betis also used veteran Joaquin Sanchez, 41, in his final appearance at Camp Nou before retiring at the end of the season, and he received a standing ovation from Barcelona fans.
The Catalans rebounded from a 2-1 loss to Rayo Vallecano in midweek. We generated a reaction, Xavi explained. We made significant progress, and the entire team responded positively.
We went up 1-0, and after the red card, the game was in our favour. After returning from injury, Xavi inserted Christensen into the starting lineup, and he made an immediate impact.
Raphinha whipped in a vicious ball that Ronald Araujo narrowly missed, but Christensen came in from behind to power home a header. After half an hour, Betis suffered another setback when defender Edgar was sent off for two bookings.
After Jules Kounde set him up with a low cross, Lewandowski pounced to score his 19th league goal of the season. The Pole, La Liga’s leading scorer, reacted after Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema earlier scored a hat-trick to close the gap on his tally.
Raphinha scored the third goal three minutes later, making a clever run in behind the defence and finishing from Sergio Busquets’ chipped pass. With just over 15 minutes remaining, Xavi introduced Ousmane Dembele, who delighted the Camp Nou crowd.
In the 82nd minute, Rodriguez deflected in Ansu Fati’s cross to give Barcelona a fourth goal. In the final stages, nearly 90,000 home fans were also treated to 15-year-old Yamal’s debut, and the winger came close to scoring with a shot saved by Rui Silva.
We were talking about it on the bench, I think I was 15 and playing for my neighbourhood team, Raphinha added. And seeing him come on in this stadium, with all of these people, is incredible.
– Stylish Madrid – With his treble, Benzema has now scored 17 goals in La Liga this season, two more than Lewandowski.
For Madrid, Benzema scored three goals in the first half and Rodrygo added a fourth early in the second, while Lazaro and Lucas Robertone scored for the visitors in the 15th minute.
Almeria coach Rubi made several changes to his regular lineup, clearly unconvinced that his team could take points at the Santiago Bernabeu; the visit of Elche on Tuesday should be more fruitful in their survival bid.
Madrid attacked freely in an entertaining game, albeit one with little tension as their chances of retaining the title were slim. In attack, the team is very dangerous, with the quality of Karim, Vini, Rodrygo, and with the ball, we play very well, coach Carlo Ancelotti told reporters.
There are some games where the offensive level looks very good, like today. Vinicius Junior set up Benzema for a tap-in early on to break the deadlock. One of the game’s highlights was Rodrygo’s assist for Benzema’s second goal, with the forward backheeling the ball to himself to avoid Samuel Costa.
source: @citizentvkenya
I think it was a pass to myself, because I didn’t have anywhere else to go, and it was a nice pass to myself with my heel, Rodrygo told DAZN. After Largie Ramazani clumsily fouled Lucas Vazquez, the 35-year-old Benzema completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot after 42 minutes.
Benzema’s goals propelled him two goals ahead of former Real Madrid attacker Hugo Sanchez to become the fourth-highest scorer in La Liga history, with 236 goals.
Vinicius was substituted in the final stages after taking a knock, but Ancelotti said the winger would be fit to play in the Copa del Rey final the following weekend. Elche avoided relegation for the time being after defeating Rayo Vallecano 4-0 despite being reduced to 10 men in the first half.
