BARCELONA: Barcelona claimed a narrow 1-0 win over Valencia on Sunday, thanks to Raphina’s stand-alone goal, and moved nine points ahead of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga.
Reigning champions Real, however, stumbled at Benito Villamarín later on and ended the frustrating week with a nil-nil draw against Real Betis.
Barcelona, who defeated the arch-rivals at home in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final on Thursday, bagged three more points and cemented their claim on the La Liga title as they top the standings with 62 points after 24 games.
The home side at Camp Nou started strongly, led by Raphinha, who missed a couple of early chances before heading the ball over the goalkeeper off a superb long pass by midfielder Sergio Busquets in the 15th minute.
But, in the second half, Ferran Torres missed a penalty and Ronald Araujo was sent off to leave the hosts battling tooth and nail to maintain the lead.
At Seville, holders Madrid dominated the proceedings but could not find a way to break the deadlock against the threatening Betis.
Karim Benzema’s effort from a free-kick was disallowed while Betis goalkeeper Claudio Bravo made a string of fine saves to deny the French forward and Vinicius Junior.
Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was also put to test in the second half by Betis but made two superb stops while the game intensified.
In another Sunday’s La Liga fixture, Valladolid cruised past Espanyol 2-1 on the back of Ivan Sanchez and Alvaro Aguado’s goal in each half.
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MADRID: Real Madrid edged past Real Betis 2-1 here on Saturday to keep their LaLiga winning streak intact meanwhile Barcelona crushed the home side Sevilla 3-0 after a dominant show to remain undefeated and secure the third consecutive victory of the season.
Real continued to stay at top of the standings while Barcelona jumped to the second after the win on matchday four of La Liga 2022-23.
Atletico Madrid, on the other hand, finished in a 1-1 draw against the home team Real Sociedad.
Vinicius Junior put Real Madrid in lead in the ninth minute as he lobbed the ball over Betis goalkeeper Rui Silva’s head after he received a wonderful long pass from David Alaba.
Betis, however, responded eight minutes later as Sergio Canales popped up inside the box to score the equalizer.
Madrid unleashed a more vigorous attack to regain the lead but squandered multiple opportunities with Rodrygo finally breaking the deadlock in the 65th minute to steer his side 2-1 up in the game.
Meanwhile, Barcelona completely thrashed out Sevilla with goals from Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Eric Garcia.
Raphinha Dias scored the opening goal after a counter-attack and the defenders cleared the ball off the line in the 21st minute. He headed the ball into the open goal with a brilliant assist from Lewandowski to make it 1-0 for Barca.
Lewandowski doubled the lead in the 36th minute as he received a phenomenal cross from Jules Kounde on his chest and volleyed the ball into the nets.
Barca furthered the lead in the 50th minute when Eric Garcia pushed the ball after a brilliant header from Kounde.
Sevilla successfully thwarted a few other attempts by Barca to extend the lead before the full-time.
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