Barcelona 1-1 Real Betis: Flick´s league leaders held to frustrating draw – Soccer News

Barcelona spurned a chance to extend their lead at the top LaLiga to six points when they were held at home 1-1 by Real Betis on Saturday.

Visiting defender Natan cancelled out Gavi’s early opener and the draw moves Hansi Flick’s Barca on to 67 points, now four ahead of rivals Real Madrid.

Madrid had slumped to a shock 2-1 defeat at home to Valencia earlier on Saturday, but Barca were unable to take full advantage.

After securing a valuable away point, in-form Betis climbed up to fifth in the standings on 48 points.

2 – Real Betis have avoided defeat in their two games against Barcelona in @LaLigaEN 2024/25 (2-2 and 1-1), something they had not achieved in a season in the competition since 2006/07 (1-1 both).

Resilience. pic.twitter.com/jLT0bnGMX8

— OptaJose (@OptaJose) April 5, 2025

The hosts had been given further motivation by rivals Madrid suffering a shocking loss and had a great start when Gavi opened the scoring from close range, brilliantly assisted by Ferran Torres in a great team move just seven minutes after kick-off.

However, Natan headed the equaliser from a corner in the 17th minute.

Though they were on top for most of the match, Barca could not find a way past 38-year-old goalkeeper Adrian, who made some key saves to frustrate the hosts.

Adrian’s brilliant performance started even before Barca opened the scoring, when he palmed away Pedri’s strike from inside the box, but there was nothing he could do to keep Gavi from scoring moments later.

Barca kept up the pressure after taking the lead but Betis equalised from a Giovanni Lo Celso corner. Natan jumped higher than defender Ronald Araujo to head into the back of the net.

Adrian came to the rescue again as he made a stunning one-handed save from a Lamine Yamal curling strike in the 38th minute.

Flick subbed on Raphinha in the second half and Barca came back even stronger, dominating the ball but wasting too many chances.

The Brazilian forward was a constant menace and missed with a curling strike from the edge of the box, with Adrian making two great efforts to deny a Jules Kounde strike in the 55th minute and a Fermin Lopez shot in the 85th.

Gavi told Movistar Plus: “We are bitter about the result because we couldn’t take advantage of the chances we had throughout the match, but we have to accept it and move on.”

Data Debrief: Barca’s winning streak ends

The dropped points marked the end of Barcelona’s nine-match winning streak in LaLiga, though Flick’s run of victories was still the longest the club have achieved since a 12-match streak under Luis Enrique way back in 2016.

It is a sequence of results that has put his Barca team firmly in control of the title race. Even if they could not quite claim a six-point advantage over Madrid, they lead by four with only eight matches to go.

Betis may not have expected to triumph here, but the draw also means their own winning run – a streak of six league games – is also over, meaning they equal their own club record rather than set a new one outright. This is, however, the first season since 2006-07 in which they have gone unbeaten in both league meetings against Barca.

Barca dominated possession in this game, with 74.1% of the ball, but they did not create enough from that, generating an expected goals (xG) total of just 1.31, with 13 shots and just five on target.

The home side were short of their best after Gavi’s early goal, a strike which came on the Spain midfielder’s 100th appearance in LaLiga.