First Division - Day 17

Barcelona 4 - Betis 0

Barcelona: Claudio Bravo; Dani Alves, Vermaelen, Mascherano, Mathieu (Adriano 67’); Rakitic, Busquets (Marc Bartra 57‘), Sergi Roberto (Munir 86’); Messi, Luis Suárez, Neymar. 4-3-3.
Betis: Adán; Molinero, Bruno (Pezzella 17‘), Westermann (Digard 36’), Vargas; Cejudo, Petros, N’Diaye, Dani Ceballos; Van Wolfswinkel, Rubén Castro (Van der Vaart 75‘). 4-4-2.

Goals:
1-0. 30. Westermann (own goal). Turned ball into net after Neymar penalty hit bar.
2-0. 33. Messi. Connected with return Neymar pass and poked shot across Adán.
3-0. 46. Luis Suárez. Picked up Busquets pass and fired shot wide of keeper.
4-0. 83. Luis Suárez. Turned shot past Adán after passing move with Neymar.

Yellow cards: Adán 27’, Vargas 27’, Petros 30’, Pezzella 68’, Dani Alves 77’.

Barcelona end the calendar year at the top of the table after they won 4-0 against Betis on Wednesday evening. The visitors held their own however until the half hour mark, when referee Bikandi Garrido awarded a controversial penalty to the Catalans after Adán and Messi clashed in the area. Neymar slipped taking the spot kick and appeared to touch the ball twice, but his shot came back off the crossbar, and Westermann turned the rebound into his own net under pressure from Rakitic. Just three minutes later Messi combined with Neymar to make it two, and with central defenders Bruno and Westermann both replaced after picking up injuries, Luis Suárez ran on to a Busquets through ball to score a third in the first minute of the second half. Neymar hit the post after that, and Messi saw a first free kick well saved a second bounce off the bar, and with seven minutes to go Suárez completed the scoring after a quick passing move with Adriano and Neymar. That took Barça on to 180 goals in 2015, two more than the previous record set by Real Madrid last year.