Real Betis vs FC Barcelona: All to play for in the race for Europe and the title

Real Betis and FC Barcelona are about to come head to head in LALIGA EA SPORTS Matchday 16, a crucial fixture as both clubs aim to meet their objectives for the season. The match will take place at the Estadio Benito Villamarín, where Los Verdiblancos will look to return to winning ways after going four rounds without tasting victory. As for Los Blaugranas, they too need to secure every point they can get. Even if they did thrash RCD Mallorca 5-1 in midweek, they too have dropped points in recent weeks. 

For Manuel Pellegrini’s Real Betis squad, they want to get back to what they do best and to what has led the club to such success in recent times. That means intensity in their play, high pressing and careful treatment of the ball while in possession, trying to play far away from their own goal as much as possible. This weekend’s opposition play in a similar way and also look to get forward quickly. Hansi Flick’s players demonstrated exactly what they are capable of in their win on Tuesday on the island of Mallorca, where they played some truly excellent football at points. 

Lo Celso and Vitor Roque vs Raphinha, Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal

When looking at which Real Betis players could pose the biggest threat to the league leaders, Giovani Lo Celso and Vitor Roque stand out, as they have five and three goals respectively. The latter is on loan from Barça and will hope to beat their famous offside trap, which caught RCD Mallorca offside 11 times in midweek. 

On the other side of the pitch will be the most prolific front three of the competition, in Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Lamine Yamal. The first two are the top two goalscorers of the competition, with 15 and 11 goals respectively. Similarly, the top two players for the most assists in Spain’s top tier are Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, with eight and six. As such, Real Betis’ defenders will have to be very alert. 

Real Betis’ 16-year wait for a LALIGA win vs FC Barcelona at the Estadio Benito Villamarín

Interestingly, Real Betis haven’t defeated FC Barcelona at the Estadio Benito Villamarín since March 29th 2008, when Los Verdiblancos bounced back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2. Since then, though, the Andalusian outfit haven’t defeated FC Barcelona on home soil in league play. They did win a Copa del Rey quarter-final second leg 3-1 in 2010/11, but that didn’t feel like much of a victory since they’d lost the first leg 5-0.

Although FC Barcelona often find it tough when they visit Real Betis, they tend to get the job done and take a positive result back to Catalonia. There have been many memorable moments at this stadium for Barça fans, such as a game on Match 17th 2019 when the Real Betis fans applauded Lionel Messi for his excellent performance, in which he scored one of his greatest goals. 

A match of reunions 

Several Real Betis players have an FC Barcelona past and will face their former club this weekend in LALIGA EA SPORTS, which is the case with Vitor Roque, Marc Bartra, Héctor Bellerín, Ez Bade and Sergi Altimira. Vitor Roque is even on loan from the Catalan side. So, this will be a special game for all these players. The links between the clubs are strong, and other players from Real Betis’ recent past also spent time at FC Barcelona, such as Juan Miranda, Claudio Bravo, Emerson Royal and Chadi Riad. This relationship has gone both ways too, with former Barça player Junior Firpo having arrived from Los Verdiblancos and with current star Gavi having spent time in the Real Betis academy. This really should be a special game for so many reasons.