FC Barcelona 3-4 Real Betis: 5 takeaways from the game

FC Barcelona were outplayed by Real Betis at the Camp Nou on Sunday. Barcelona missed Phillipe Coutinho due to injury but they had the returning Lionel Messi for support. Barcelona had to fight to win against Rayo Vallecano in their previous match but hope to sail through Betis at home.

Quique Setien's men came out all guns blazing from the word go. They beat Barcelona at their own game, moving the ball, creating spaces and playing possession football. Barcelona fell behind early thanks to Junior Firpo. Joaquin doubled Betis' lead and put Barcelona in deep waters in the first half.

Barcelona showed more promise in the second half and came back with Lionel Messi's penalty. Betis, however, held their nerves and were one step ahead of the Blaugrana at every point of the game. In the end, Barcelona succumbed to a 4-3 loss to Real Betis. Although Barcelona will stay at the top of the table, their lead over Espanyol would be gone and they will stay only one point clear off Atletico Madrid.

An important game awaits Barcelona at the Wanda Metropolitano, but first, we look at five takeaways from the Betis game.

#5 Betis start on the front foot and keep their foot on the pedal

Real Betis were rampant from the starting whistle

While many teams look to defend against Barcelona while playing at home and look for opportunities, Real Betis thought different. They passed the ball around, even though deep in their half, keeping the ball away from Barcelona. They played wonderfully through the press of Barcelona.

When they got opportunities, they broke away quickly on the counter-attack. Pique came to the rescue early but Barcelona couldn't do much about the pace and passing of Betis. Betis played through the press, took possession in centrally and teased the defence many times.

Junior Firpo and Joaquin's goals came off the brilliant counter-attacking football which left Barcelona's defence in tatters. Barcelona was outnumbered at the defensive end, giving too much space for the Betis midfield to create. Barcelona was completely outplayed in the first half.

Even after scoring, they didn't make attempts to park the bus and moved forward with intent, taking each and every chance that comes across. In the end, it was Setien outplaying Barcelona at their own game and Betis getting a deserving win.

#4 Barcelona's substitutions came a little too late

Valverde missed a trick by not starting Vidal

In an attempt to salvage something from the game, Ernesto Valverde introduced Arturo Vidal from the start of the second half. Vidal's impact on the game was clearly visible. His link-up with Lionel Messi helped Barcelona's case to make a comeback.

Vidal showed his brutal physicality to take the ball away from Betis on several occasions. He countered the swift and technical moves through his physicality alone. He managed to score a goal and created opportunities unselfishly for Messi towards the end.

It seemed as though Barcelona missed a trick by starting without Vidal in the first half. Munir's introduction too made a lot of sense. Even though questionable, Munir was involved in a lot more passing moves than Malcom. He showed immense maturity in laying the ball off to Vidal to score when he could have scored on his own.

Carles Alena was introduced late in the game but even he was good on the pitch in the short of time. Perhaps his creativity was required much earlier, as Rakitic looked out of sorts for the majority of the game.

Ernesto Valverde's decision making was good but his realization came too little too late.

#3 Fatal individual errors haunt Barcelona

Barcelona lost the game by only a one-goal margin in the end. However, things could have been very different had they made use of their opportunities. Lionel Messi managed to get hang of the possession a lot but he didn't see many options in front and tried too hard himself. It wasn't a big error but it is a huge error against a team coached by Setien.

At the defensive end, Sergi Roberto was heavily involved in the first and second goals. It was his fault that Firpo got such a good look at the goal. Even Jordi Alba failed to clear the ball before the second goal giving all the time required for Joaquin to be found and tap the ball in. Lenglet and Pique were caught ball watching.

Despite their errors, when Barcelona was just crawling its way back, Ter Stegen had his rare brain fade moment. Lo Celso's shot had nothing much behind it but Ter Stegen misjudged the pace behind the ball and didn't put a strong fist behind it. The shot deflected off his glove and chipped its way over his head into the net.

If that wasn't enough, Arturo Vidal missed the best of chances to feed the ball right into Suarez's head, while having all the space and time that he needs. When the cross did come in, Pique managed to somehow head the ball over the net from just about a yard out. When this happened, it didn't seem like a problem but looking at the results, things could have been a lot different.

#2 Lionel Messi: The lone warrior for Barcelona

You have to feel for Lionel Messi. Most likely he will get trolled for the result as Barcelona managed to do well without him. But this game could have been a lot different if Messi wasn't present, by which I mean, a lot worse for Barcelona.

He fended off his fracture, earlier than many expected him to and returned to the starting line-up before the expected Atletico game. He wasn't a liability on the team and had an unlikely high work rate because his team trailed. He attempted a lot in the first half, the Betis defence not managing to push him off the ball by any means. He created soon after Barcelona conceded, off a free kick. He sent the ball right into Lenglet's head but Pau Lopez saved the header.

He started the second half strongly as well, attempting shots which went just wide. He tried playing Suarez in on several occasions but Suarez missed his chances. Finally, when he had the chance, he stepped up to take the penalty under pressure and scored. He dropped deep into the pitch for the first time in a long time to recover the ball.

Messi's neat through ball created the second goal for Barcelona. Bypassing the defence it went straight to Munir. Messi added another goal in late added time but it was too little too late for Barcelona.

Messi attempted a total of 7 shots with only two off target. Completed 7 out of 8 attempted dribbles and made 5 key passes. He finished the game as the man of the match, but he wouldn't be happy with the result.

Lionel doesn't deserve the blame for the result by any means.

#1 Quique Setien beats Barcelona the Barcelona way

Quique Setien is one of the most underrated managers in La Liga. It is due to his hard work that Betis are playing European football this year. They managed to defeat Real Madrid last year in the league and did the same to Barcelona now.

Setien instructed his team to hold on to the ball which they did very well. Betis kept the possession even under immense pressure from Barcelona. Also, Betis' doors stayed firmly shut other than Lenglet's one attempt at goal in the first half. The only man who caused headaches to the defence was Messi but they dealt with the pass that he made, thus nullifying his effect.

When they broke into the counter, they outnumbered Barcelona. Each pass they made was towards a player that was in a huge amount of space. While Barcelona became obsessed with chasing the ball, Betis hit the spaces and broke off in the direction of the goal. Setien's midfield truly outclassed Barcelona in the first half. Carvalho, Lo Celso, Tello, everyone seemed to be on the same wavelength.

Setien didn't give defensive instructions even after a two-goal lead. When Barcelona came crawling back Betis sent them down again, with ferocious attacks and scoring more goals. Barcelona tried to come back a lot of times but 4 goals were just too much in the end.

The decision to substitute Joaquin for Canales was a good one. Canales scored the fourth goal to put the game out of reach for Barcelona. The formation change to 3-4-2-1, the decision to play Lo Celso in the hole, the decision to put three at the back, everything fell into place.

Barcelona found out the hard way that mistakes against Quique Setien's team are bound to be fatal.