Betis score 2 at Camp Nou but victory goes to Barca

It was a tough game against Real Betis last night at the Camp Nou but Barca pulled through and managed a 4-2 win after being held 2-2 by the Andalusian side.

Barcelona squandered a two-goal lead before seeing off 10-man Real Betis 4-2 to cut Real Madrid’s lead at the top of La Liga back to five points on Sunday.

Two goals from Lionel Messi and a goal apiece from Xavi and Alexis Sanchez fired them to the victory after Ruben Castro and Roque Santa Cruz had levelled.

Betis had Mario Vazquez sent off with the score at 2-2 with 20 minutes remaining and Barca never looked back.

Now the focus is turned to the Spanish Cup on Wednesday when the two giants face each other in the first leg of a quarter-final tie.

Real Madrid had came from behind on Saturday to win 2-1 at Mallorca with late goals from Gonzalo Higuain and Jose Callejon.

“The cup is a different competition so we have to change our mentality. What we do know is we will go all out to get through the tie,” said Xavi.

“We have no doubts about our play, although we know we can play better or worse than tonight. Our philosophy is always the same, we go out to attack. We were eight points behind Madrid and Betis made it difficult for us because they wanted the ball.”

Barca coach Pep Guardiola added of Wednesday’s game: “It’s always good to go into a game on the back of a win, but we know who we are up against and we’ll try to play the best game we can.”

Betis started the better team in the Camp Nou and tested Victor Valdes twice in the opening minutes.More here.

So as we see, it was a tough game against Betis who stepped up to the mark and scored 2 priceless goals at the Camp Nou. The Andalusian side was holding Barca to a comfortable 2-2 draw when they were left with 10 men. Anyone who knows Barca will realize that any team with 10 men is virtually toast against them. This is what happened last night and Real Betis quickly conceded 2 goals and the game ended up 4-2 in Barca’s favor. Barcelona meet Real Madrid on Wednesday for the first leg of their Copa del Rey clash – an exciting game indeed!