Barça travel to Seville for a massive match looking to maintain their comfortable lead at the top of the table
Real Betis (6th, 31pts) vs FC Barcelona (1st, 47pts)
Competition/Round: 2022-23 La Liga, Matchday 17
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Ousmane Dembélé (out)
Real Betis Outs & Doubts: Juan Cruz (out)
Date/Time: Wednesday, February 1, 2023, 9pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 8pm GMT (UK), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 1.30am IST (India, Thursday)
Venue: Estadio Benito Villamarín, Seville, Spain
Referee: Ricardo De Burgos Bengoechea
VAR: Santiago Jaime Latre
How to watch on TV: ESPN Deportes (USA), TSN 3 (Canada), Viaplay Sports 1 (UK), SuperSport (Nigeria), Sports18 (India), Movistar LaLiga (Spain), others
How to watch online: ESPN+ (USA), LaLigaTV (UK), Movistar+ (Spain), others
Following a hard-fought Catalan Derby win away to Girona at the weekend, Barcelona return to action for a massive La Liga game against Real Betis at the Benito Villamarín on Wednesday night.
This match was supposed to take place three weeks ago but was rescheduled due to the Spanish Super Cup semi-final between these two which was won by Barça on penalties after a very entertaining game. Now they meet in the league, and the entertainment is expected to carry over.
That’s just how it goes between these two teams: they meet, play 90 wild minutes of football with loads of chances and goals for both sides, and then shake hands and go home after treating the fans to a spectacle. It’s attacking football at its finest, defense is optional, and fun is guaranteed.
Manuel Pellegrini continues to do a phenomenal job as Betis coach and has a complete team that can attack and score goals against anyone. The defense has been an issue lately and they haven’t won a home game in the league since October, and the Super Cup loss followed by a painful Copa del Rey elimination at home proved to be tough blows to their confidence.
But they’ll still bring their A-game to face the mighty Barcelona, and Brazilian winger Luiz Henrique will hope for a repeat of the fantastic performance he had in their Super Cup meeting. He and Nabil Fekir were nearly unplayable at times, and Barça will have to pay extra attention to those two.
The Blaugrana won’t have the injured Ousmane Dembélé but welcome back Robert Lewandowski from his suspension, and the Pole will be looking to score his first league goal since October and lead his team to a crucial win.
Barça are currently five points ahead of Real Madrid and will be eight points clear for at least 24 hours with a victory, and their job is to continue putting pressure on their biggest rivals in the title race. Beating Betis is no guarantee, and depending on the circumstances a point could even be a cause for celebration. That’s how good their opponent is, and it’ll take Barça’s very best game to leave Seville with all three points.
Let’s dance.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-3-3): Ter Stegen; Roberto, Araujo, Christensen, Balde; Gavi, De Jong, Pedri; Ferran, Lewandowski, Fati
Real Betis (4-2-3-1): Silva; Sabaly, Pezzella, Felipe, Miranda; Carvalho, Rodríguez; Henrique, Canales, Fekir; Iglesias
PREDICTION
These two teams refuse to play boring matches. And this will be another fun one that Barça find a way to win: 3-2 to the good guys.
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