Betis - Barcelona, ​​for La Liga Santander, minute by minute, live: Messi starts on the bench

02/07/2021 13:18

• Clarín.com

• sports

Updated 02/07/2021 17:06

Without Lionel Messi, who starts as a substitute after the epic victory against Granada for the Rec Cup, FC Barcelona visits Betis this Sunday for the date 22 of LaLiga Santander in Spain and seeks to close the gap with Diego Simeone's Atlético de Madrid.

Those led by Ronald Koeman won their last five games of the championship and, after a terrible start to the tournament, they are now fourth, although ten points behind the Cholo team and with one more game.

For now they equalize without goals.

The match, which is played at the Benito Villamarín stadium in the city of Seville, began at 17 in Argentina and is broadcast by DirecTV Sports.

The previous

Both Betis and

Barça

are doing well in La Liga lately, although they arrive with opposite feelings after their Copa del Rey matches.

The Blaugrana team suffered in Granada but are in the semifinals - they will be measured against Sevilla - while Betis had the pass in their hands, but Athletic forced extra time and won in the penalty shootout.

Thus, Manuel Pellegrini's men rely on, already focused solely on LaLiga, to continue on the path marked by the victory over Osasuna or Celta in their last home games.

The Betics, seventh and up, want to continue down that path and, with a win, they would enter the cup classification zone.

In front, however, they have a Barcelona that continues to improve.

Those of Koeman, who needed extra time to overcome Granada (5-3) in the quarterfinals of the Cup, have five consecutive victories in LaLiga that had even allowed them to surpass Real Madrid in the table (although with the triumph of this , they were down again).

Leo suffered against Granada but qualified for the semifinals of the Copa del Rey.

Reuters photo

The company is difficult but the Blaugranas, if they want to continue harassing those of Cholo Simeone, they must win yes or yes at Villamarín, where they did it last season (2-3), a territory where they have been undefeated 9 games with six victories.

In this campaign, in the duel of the first round, Barça managed a

hand

(5-2) with a double from Leo Messi included.

The 10th, protagonist of the soap opera of the season due to his renewal or departure, is sweet, more confident and decisive, and will once again lead his teammates.

Sergi Roberto will not be at Benito Villamarín, who has relapsed from a previous injury and returns to a list of casualties already formed by Gerard Piqué, Philippe Coutinho and Ansu Fati.

Betis, for their part, in doubt Marc Bartra and Claudio Bravo, two former blaugranas.