Barcelona 4 - 0 Real Betis: 5 Talking Points

The dream year of 2015 ended on a high note for the Blaugrana as they finished it with an emphatic 4-0 victory over Real Betis at the Camp Nou. Returning from the Club World cup as World Champions, Barcelona won their last game of an extremely dominating year with much ease.Messi netted his sixth league goal of the season as he played his 500th game for Barcelona, quite an achievement in itself. The other goals came as a brace from Suarez and an own goal from Betis man, Heiko Westermann.Here are the major talking points from the game.

#1 Messi hits the 500 mark for Barcelona

The little magician scored on his 500th appearance for Barcelona on Wednesday night

Lionel Messi crossed yet another milestone when he played his 500th game for Barcelona since making his debut back in 2004. This is a great achievement as he enters an elite group of players with only five players having reached this milestone before.

Long time teammate and legend Xavi Hernandez holds the record at 737 and is followed by Carles Puyol at 593, Andres Iniesta at 568, Migueli at 549, Victor Valdes at 535 and finally Lionel Messi at 500. It is to be noted that Iniesta and Messi are still active at the club.

Messi’s game number 500 was a match to remember as he was the scorer of a beautiful team goal which put the side 2-0 up. This was also Messi’s 425th goal for the club in 500 games, with 292 having been scored in La Liga.

He has been scoring mesmerizing goals all over the year and excluding the last two months when he was away with injuries, the Barcelona talisman has had a wonderful year. He is undoubtedly the front-runner to win the 2015 Ballon d’Or.

#2 Barcelona\'s penalty woes

Neymar got lucky as he spotkick came off the bar before being deflected into his own net by Westermann

Barcelona and penalty misses have become related topics over the course of the last year or so. While firstly it was just Lionel Messi who was the talk of the town, now it’s Neymar too who has become the victim of the curse. He has been sending the balls flying wide or hitting the woodwork.

Barcelona have failed to score most of the spot-kicks awarded to them over the course of the last few months. The situation is more dire than it seems as this could clearly be their undoing in the games with bigger stakes as history is so eager to remind us.

Tonight’s games was another stark reminder of the situation as Neymar hit the crossbar when he stepped up to take the spot-kick won by Messi. Luckily for Barcelona though, the ball ended up in the back of the net all thanks to a failed clearance attempt by Betis man, Heiko Westermann.

#3 Betis become the victim of bad refereeing

Betis manager Pepe Mel will be furious with the referee’s harsh penalty decision which saw the hosts opening their account

Imcompetent decision making by La Liga referees has been the talk of the year. There have been a lot of controversial decisions over the past few months. There have been penaltes wrongly given, not given when due, useless cards and what not.

Even the game today was marred by bad refereeing and Real Betis were the victims on the occasion. The penalty kick from which Barcelona scored their first goal of the game should clearly have not been given. The goalkeeper Adan had gone for the ball and hit Lionel Messi in the follow up only after the ball had been cleared.

The referees perceived it differently though, and a spot kick was immediately awarded. Not only that, the goalkeeper was even handed a yellow card. While one may argue that this decision wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the game much but still it was an important one as it led to the home side’s first goal of the night.

#4 The World Champions return to winning ways

Barcelona avoided a third consecutive stalemate in La Liga with last night’s victory

The Club World Cup winning Barcelona side was brimming with confidence as they took to the field against Real Betis. Their first league game in quite some time saw them take on Betis without any visible signs of fatigue. This went contrary to the popular belief that the Club World Cup is an added burden and begins a period of downfall for the squad.

This was a much-needed win for the Catalans as prior to the World Cup, they had drawn their last 3 games, two in La Liga and one in the Champions League.

Whether the hectic schedule will catch up with them only remains to be seen in the coming weeks. This shouldn’t be much of a problem though because Arada Turan and Aleix Vidal will be joining the squad shortly and without doubt there will be some new signings, now that the transfer ban imposed on them is finally coming to an end.

#5 Barcelona looking to take winning form into the New Year

The deadly ‘MSN’ finished off the 2015 calendar year with a trademark attacking masterclass against Betis

The fans and the team alike couldn’t have asked for a more perfect ending to what has been an extraordinary and exceptional year. Barcelona played beautiful football tonight, painting a picture of what the year has been. Finishing the year as joint leaders of the league with one game in hand and having recently been crowned the world champions only begins to describe the dream year the team has had.

This was the year of the treble! This year will go down as one of the best ever in the club’s history as Barcelona won a total of five trophies this year, becoming the only team to win the coveted treble twice.

Barcelona will definitely be looking to take their winning form into the coming year as they face rivals Espanyol in the Catalan derby in their first game of the new year. Not to mention that the squad will have been strengthened by new members joining in after the transfer ban imposed by FIFA having run its course.