Madrid: Barcelona registered their third win in as many games in La Liga after a crushing 8-2 win over recently promoted Huesca, while Real Betis captain Joaquin Sanchez’s late strike gave them a 1-0 win against arch-rivals Sevilla.
Although Huesca Sunday performed well and highlighted weaknesses in the Barcelona defence in a first half which ended 3-2 with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez both scoring in front of 72,892 fans at the Camp Nou stadium.
But they had no answer after the break as Ousmane Dembele, Ivan Rakitic, Jordi Alba and Suarez and Messi again made Huesca pay for leaving too many spaces in defence, reports Xinhua news agency.
In Seville, the Quique Setien-coached Betis dominated at all times in a match full of close calls against Sevilla. Though the team was missing key duo Escudero and Amadou, Sevilla FC head coach Pablo Machin put together a team that included Brazil’s Arana, Portugal’s Andre Silva and Argentina’s Franco Vazquez.
Betis had Portugal’s William Carvalho on their side, as well as Mandi, Mexico’s Andres Guardado — who is fully recovered from an injury – as well as Loren, Sergio Canales and Japan’s Takashi Inui.
In the 80th minute, Joaquin Sanchez scored a header, snatching the Sevilla Derby win for Real Betis, a team that had not seen a victory at home in 12 years.
Meanwhile, Espanyol took 12 corners to Alaves’ none and opened the scoring against the Basque side through Leo Baptistao in the 42nd minute. But goals from Borja Baston and Ruben Soriano in the 57th and 59th minutes meant Alaves win 2-1.