Barcelona regained the spark that enabled it to fly far in the lead and walk towards the first title since 2019, with a huge victory over the powerful Real Betis 4-0, while its rivals Real Madrid clung to the runner-up by beating Almeria 4-2 thanks to the Frenchman Karim Benzema’s hat-trick on Saturday in the stage. 32 of the Spanish league.

At Camp Nou, Barcelona took advantage of the numerical shortage in the ranks of Betis since the 33rd minute to achieve only its second victory in the last five matches and thus maintain the 11-point difference that separates it from Real six stages before the end of the season.

And after fasting from scoring for four consecutive matches, the Polish Robert Lewandowski managed to reach the net for the second match in a row, but this time with a victory, unlike Wednesday’s meeting in which Barcelona fell to Rayo Vallecano (1-2), reinforcing his lead in the scorers’ ranking with 19 goals, two ahead of Benzema.

The eleventh defeat of guest Betis, who lost for the third time this season against Barcelona (in the Super Cup semi-finals and the first leg of the league), was a near-destructive blow to his hopes of participating in the Champions League, as he became 9 points behind Real Sociedad IV, who won Friday against Osasuna 2. -zero.

Barcelona started the meeting well, as it opened the scoring in the 14th minute, thanks to Danish defender Andreas Christensen, who headed the ball into the net after a cross from Brazilian Rafinha.

Then, after the dismissal of Edgar Gonzalez, who entered in the 13th minute instead of the Italian injured Luiz Felipe, with a second warning (33), Barcelona strengthened its lead with a second goal through Lewandowski after a pass from Frenchman Jules Conde (36).

By raising his score to 19 goals, Lewandowski became the first player to reach this number of goals in his first season with Barcelona since Cameroonian Samuel Eto'o in the 2004-2005 season (24 goals), according to "Opta" statistics.

And soon the Catalan club added the third goal through Rafinha after a beautiful pass from Sergio Busquets, whose validity was confirmed after resorting to the video assistant referee (39).

Barcelona was close to the fourth goal at the beginning of the second half, but the left post stood in the face of Lewandowski (57).
The 73rd minute witnessed the entry of Frenchman Othmane Dembele into Barcelona for the first time since he suffered a thigh injury in January, to join Pedri, who in turn returned at the end of last week in the victory over Atletico Madrid (1-0).

But the fourth goal came thanks to the other substitute, Ansu Fati, who penetrated on the left side and played the ball crossly, so Guido Rodrigues accidentally turned it into his own net (82) at the end of an evening that witnessed the entry of the young Lamine Yamal as well, becoming at the age of 15 years and 290 days the youngest player to defend the colors of Barcelona in League and fifth in the history of "La Liga" according to "Opta".

Real also regained its balance and ensured its exit from the stage in the runner-up by defeating its guest Almeria 4-2, restoring its balance after falling to Girona 2-4 in the last stage, which gave neighboring Atletico the opportunity to reduce the difference to two points.

Real owes the victory, which was achieved in the absence of Croatian playmaker Luka Modric, due to an injury that might prevent him from participating in the cup final against Osasuna and the Champions League semi-final against Manchester City on May 6 and 9, to Benzema, who settled the three points greatly in the first half by scoring. Three goals.

In light of Barcelona's tweeting in the lead, Real seeks to adhere to the "moral" description, since it is largely guarantor of participation in the Champions League, as it is temporarily 18 points ahead of Villarreal V.

Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti's team advanced by 5 points from its third neighbor, Atletico Madrid, who is visiting Valladolid on Sunday, and is also assured of its participation in the Champions League.

"We always have a great desire to win," said Brazilian Rodrigo, who passed a decisive ball and scored a goal. "After losing the last match, we had an even greater desire to return to winning."

"We played a very good game and I'm happy to have another assist and another goal, but the most important thing is that we won."
Real struck early and opened the scoring less than 5 minutes after the start through Benzema, who received the ball on a silver platter from Brazilian Vinicius Junior after an effort on the left side, so he followed it into the net.

And soon Benzema added his second goal, this time after an effort by Rodrigo, who manipulated the defense on the right side before reflecting the ball to the Frenchman, so he hit it with his right into the net (17).

With this, Benzema raised his total score in the Spanish League to 235 goals, displacing, by a goal difference, Mexican Hugo Sanchez from fourth place on the list of historical scorers for “La Liga”, before adding his third goal in the match and 236 in the league from a penalty kick that Lucas Vazquez snatched (42). ).

Almeria narrowed the gap before the end of the first half through Brazilian Lazzaro Marques after a pass from the Belgian Largi Ramazani (1 + 45), but Real responded at the beginning of the second and added the fourth through Rodrigo with a wonderful shot from outside the area (48).

Almeria returned to reduce the difference, taking advantage of the royal club’s reluctance, thanks to the header of Argentine substitute Lucas Robertoni, after a cross from Francisco Portillo (61), then canceled a penalty kick for Benzema (81) after resorting to “VAR” before the Frenchman hit the left post (86). ) who then saved a shot by substitute Marco Asensio (90).