MADRID.— In a period of three days, the Barcelona he dealt two blows to the Real Madrid.
After defeating his staunch rival in the first leg of the semifinals of the Copa del Rey in the stadium Santiago Bernabeu, Barcelona took an important step to conquer the Spanish League with a 1-0 win against Valencia and stretching their lead to nine points on Sunday.
He Madrid could not keep up with the Catalan club when they drew 0-0 at the Real Betis.
A header from the Brazilian attacker Raphinha in the first half it was enough for Barcelona to emerge triumphant in the Camp Nou
But the rest of the process was an ordeal for the leaders who had just suffered a defeat against the Almeria on the previous date.
Ferran Torres wasted a penalty that would have widened the difference at the start of the match and Barça played in numerical inferiority for the last half hour due to the expulsion of the Uruguayan defender Ronald Araujo.
Barca’s eighth victory by the minimum this season left them with 62 units from the top of the championship, nine above Madrid.
“Competing, yes, I’m very happy about that, but we have to improve our game”said the Barca coach Xavi Hernandezwho watched the game from the stands for being suspended.
“The numbers are very good but we have to improve in the game.”
Raphinha took advantage of the 15 minutes the center to the heart of the area Sergio Busquets and connected with a frent at the bad start of the goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili. It was the Brazilian’s fifth goal in the tournament.
against Valencia, Pedri and Robert Lewandowski they were back in the stands due to physical discomfort, in addition to Gavi for serving a suspension.
“We did what we needed to do, we had to lower the lines (because of the expulsion of Araujo)”said Raphinha. “The most important thing was that we didn’t suffer from any goal and we came out with the victory.”
In the first minutes of the plug-in, Torres crashed the collection of a penalty on the post. Torres and his partner Ansu Fati They discussed who should be in charge of the execution. It was Barca’s second maximum penalty in the tournament and both have been failed.
Barcelona closed the week with a pair of wins fundamental in their efforts to win a domestic double of titles.
They beat Madrid 1-0 in the first game of the semifinals of the cup tournament, despite the absence of Pedri, Gavi, Robert Lewandowski y Andreas Christensen.
For the next visit duel against the Athletic BilbaoBarça will not have Araujo. The Uruguayan saw the direct red card at minute 59 after avoiding a dangerous Valencian attack with a free kick.
Valencia suffered its 13th defeat to stagnate in the penultimate position with 23 units.