Their ‘side quest’ to become the first club in a 20-team LaLiga ever to achieve this feat got off to a dominant start.
Two shots on target and a mazy run from João Cancelo in the opening quarter hour left Los Verdiblancos chasing shadows, though to give credit where due, the visitors had the ball in the net on 23 minutes, with celebrations being cut short when Abde Ezzalzouli’s effort was ruled out for an earlier offside.
Shortly afterwards, Raphinha arrowed a direct free-kick into the bottom corner of the Betis net, with goalkeeper Álvaro Valles completely wrong-footed.
A flying Joan García save kept another Abde effort – Betis’ first legitimate one on target – out, and Barça continued to remain on the front foot leading into half time.
As the game approached the hour mark, there had been little in the way of goalmouth action since the break. Noticeably, half-time substitute Isco, was heavily involved in Betis’ attacking forays, as Manuel Pellegrini looked to change things up for the visitors.
The pace of the game had noticeably dropped off, and Barça were, in fact, beginning to look a little sloppy in their endeavours.
But Barcelona are well known for punishing mistakes, and Héctor Bellerín’s awful back pass was gratefully accepted by Raphinha, before the Brazilian’s low drive into the net put some daylight between the two teams.
A contentious penalty for the visitors with 20 minutes to play was dispatched by Isco for his first goal of the season, handing Betis a lifeline.
Antony’s beautiful curling effort then almost drew the visitors level, before Cancelo got the goal his performance deserved with a beautiful right-footed shot from outside the box.
The win for Barcelona meant a 12th LaLiga victory over Betis in the last 15 H2Hs, whilst it was Manuel Pellegrini’s record-extending 29th defeat as a manager at the hands of the Catalan giants.
