From the back

Betis bounce back for the three points (3-2)

Barça have lost a game that seemed to be done and dusted in their favour at half time. Despite taking a 2-0 lead, Betis staged a spectacular second half comeback to leave Barça’s title challenge on edge.

The Ruiz de Lopera witnessed an incredible comeback performance by Real Betis, who looked well out of contention after going down 2-0 in the first half. Chaparro’s side looked hopelessly out of their depth, but turned the game around with three goals in the last twenty minutes to leave Frank Rijkaard’s side devastated.

Lethal opening

The first half was all about Barcelona. Not only did they dominate the midfield, but they were able to turn their chances into goals. Within fifteen minutes they were already two up. The opener came from a magnificent assist from Xavi to find Eto’o, whose shot struck the post, but an opportunistic Bojan was at hand to beat a number of rivals to the rebound and put Barça ahead after 13 minutes. Moments later and Eto’o latched onto a quality pass from Iniesta to beat Casto and make it 2-0.

Playing for pleasure

Barça had Betis enclosed in their own half and enjoyed an almost embarrassingly large proportion of the possession. Iniesta and Xavi created chance after chance for Barça’s star studded forward line, while both full backs also pushed forward to create goalscoring opportunities that missed the target by a matter of millimetres.

Complete change in fortune

With the win apparently well in their grasp, Barça played a contention game in the second half. They again dominated the control of the centre of the park, but this time failed to create as many clear cut opportunities. The game slowed to an almost unbearably dull pace, with the home fans falling almost silent before Edu restored hope with a trademark header on 63 minutes. This was the start of fourteen minutes Barcelona will prefer to forget. Betis had looked well out of it, but the goal reinvigorated them and Odonkor almost made it two each when taking advantage of a mix up in the Barcelona defence.

Two crucial minutes

Things no longer looked quite so safe for Barça, and tragedy almost struck when the referee indicated a penalty in favour of the Andalusian outfit. Valdés saved the spot kick but just seconds later and Juanito collected a loose ball in the Barça area and struck it well out of reach of Valdés and into the back of the Barça net.. The Betis fans were still celebrating the equaliser when a tremendous individual run by Edu through a dumbstruck Barça defence made it 3-1 to the green and whites with 12 minutes left on the clock. Barcelona found no response to that and Betis took the three points from an incredible game that they never looked like winning until the final minutes. Meanwhile, the defeat comes as a cruel blow to Barça's chances of winning La Liga.

Goal

0-1 Bojan (13')
0-2 Eto'o (16')
1-2 Edu (63')
2-2 Juanito (76')
3-2 Edu (78')