A healing rout on a historic night for Barca
A placid victory is the best antidote to any doubts. Barça's victory over Betis on Saturday brought them one step closer to the league title. The Blaugrana maintain their 11-point lead over Madrid (who also comfortably beat Almeria) with just six games to go. The Culés can now start looking at the calendar to see where the title triumph will be celebrated. Because this league title, after three years of drought, deserves to be celebrated in style.
This title, which is about to be won, has a lot of value if you take into account where Barça come from. Last season they struggled to qualify for the Champions League. This season they will win the league with overwhelming superiority. A brutal transformation of Xavi's team. The Blaugrana coach can be tremendously satisfied with the work he has done in these months, in which he has managed, despite the difficulties, to get Barça back to the top of Spanish football.
A total of 25 wins in 32 games with only 11 goals conceded demonstrates the solvency of a team that has been able to overcome all adverse circumstances: from long, untimely injuries to key players (Pedri or Dembélé, for example) to extra-sporting controversies such as the 'Negreira case'. The value of this League, therefore, is twofold.
DEBUT OF LAMINE YAMAL
Barça were coming off the back of a painful defeat at Rayo that had caused more noise than usual in the blaugrana environment. Xavi and his players needed an authoritative victory that would allow them to face the final stretch of the championship with serenity and confidence. Barça put the bad image of Vallecas behind them at the Spotify Camp Nou, comfortably dominating a Betis side who were outclassed from the first minute of the game. The goals came one after the other (Christensen scored on his return, followed by Lewandowski and Raphinha, in one of his best performances) until half-time with an unassailable 3-0 lead.
The second half was anecdotal in footballing terms, but it saw Dembélé return from injury and Lamine Yamal make his debut, becoming the youngest player to wear the Blaugrana shirt in an official match in the 21st century at just 15 years of age. It was the perfect climax to a historic night.
