Barcelona succumbed to their first home defeat in two years as they left stunned by Real Betis 4-3 at the Camp Nou on Sunday.
Lionel Messi successfully returned to the first team after recovering from an arm injury and even scored twice but couldn’t prevent his side from going down after Betis ran rampant on the night.
The visitors got the lead through Junior Firpo after 20 minutes. Joaquin added a second in the 34th minute much to the shock of the crowd at the Nou Camp. Barcelona nonetheless pulled one back through Messi who successfully converted a penalty.
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But Betis once again increased the deficit through Argentine Giovani lo Celso who scored the third goal. New signing Arturo Vidal tapped in eight minutes later to once again raise the hopes of his side. Sergio Canales then buried off the game with a goal of his own before Messi scored once again.
But it wasn’t enough for the leaders, whose last home loss came to Alaves in September of 2016 when they were handed a 1-2 loss. Barcelona’s hopes took a dash when they lost Ivan Rakitic after the Croatian was handed a second yellow card with eight minutes to time.
Despite the loss, Ernesto Valverde’s men stay at the top of the table, but the gap has been narrowed down. Sevilla stand at the second spot with 23 points, followed by Atletico Madrid at third and Alaves at fourth.
Real Madrid’s winning run under Solari continues
Santiago Solari finally seems to have arrested the slump at the Bernabeu as his side clinched a 4-2 win over Celta Vigo. Karim Benzema scored the opener in the 23rd minute before an own goal by Gustavo Cabral in the 56th minute. Captain Sergio Ramos converted a penalty in the 80th minute and Dani Ceballos capped off the win by scoring in the stoppage time.
Image credit-Arizona Daily Star