Barcelona – Real Betis

Barcelona will try to defeat Betis

Barcelona play at home against Betis on Saturday 29 April. The Catalans effectively secured victory in the Spanish championship a month ago. With seven games to go, the margin of victory over Real Madrid is eleven points. Betis still have a theoretical chance of qualifying for the Champions League. In the meantime, they need to win all their remaining matches to do so. For Barcelona, the season is effectively over after the games against Real Madrid. The team beat Madrid in the championship and then crashed out of the King's Cup. April turns out to be a nightmare month for Xavi's team. In five matches, the club suffered three defeats. In total they managed to score two goals. The level of their opponents was also not prohibitive. Barcelona drew with Girona and Getafe. In the last game, they lost to Rayo Vallecano. There were concerns about a loss of motivation. Xavi has failed to motivate his players to fight for the club's honour. The players are doing their best, given the tournament position. Injuries are another important factor. As a result, we had our worst run of the season. Even the returning leaders did not help. Pedri and De Jong played against Rayo. The only positive moments were the long-awaited goal by Robert Lewandowski. The Pole broke his prolonged goalless streak. Robert practically secured victory in the scoring race with 18 goals. Betis were at one point the shadow favourites in the battle for fourth place amid a Real Sociedad crisis. The Sevillians had fallen victim to a tough schedule and injuries. Nabil Fekir dropped out at the crucial moment of the season. Luis Enrique's side have been sharply dealt a blow, with other losses to the rotation also taking their toll. Betis also failed in April. The club won one match out of five. A chance to sharpen the race for fourth place came in a home clash with Real Sociedad. The game ended 0-0. The hosts once again created very few chances on attack. At the moment, in addition to Fekir, Betis' main defender Sabaly is injured. Pellegrini also can't count on rotation player Juanmi. Barcelona are without Christensen and Sergi Roberto, but Ousmane Dembele could be out. Both teams are motivated to play to win. The fans have been waiting for the Catalans to win with confidence and plenty of goals. It simply does not make sense for Betis to hold on for a draw. The teams usually enjoy a high number of goals in their recent head-to-head encounters. If we take a stretch of ten games, only one meeting has failed to produce an exchange of goals. It is logical to expect the pattern to continue.