3 reasons why Barcelona beat Real Betis 

#1 Lionel Messi

Messi left everyone in his wake

For the umpteenth time, Lionel Messi was the biggest tilting scale between defeat and victory for Barcelona. After stealing the show in mid-week, the diminutive forward took his game up a notch and delivered a scintillating performance against Betis.

In the opening quarter of the game, the visitors were under the cosh. The home side had started brightly and looked dextrous enough to breach the former’s rear-guard. However, Messi had other ideas.

The Argentine struck a sumptuous free-kick from twenty yards to hand Barcelona the initiative. He took his league tally to 28 on the stroke of half-time after neat interplay with his strike partner, Luis Suarez.

The No.10 though wasn’t finished. With five minutes of regulation time remaining, the forward collected a pass from the left flank and curled a delicious chip beyond Pau Lopez.

When the Argentine is on song, he is just unplayable. And despite a herculean effort, he might still have a further gear to click into.

A few days ago, the world was raving about how a certain Cristiano Ronaldo had propelled his team to victory. Though Messi has admitted before that he doesn’t concern himself with the rivalry, that surely would’ve fuelled the fire of laying down his own marker.

And by the time he was done on Sunday, the Estadio Benito Villamarin rightly reverberated to chants of “Messi, Messi, Messi.”