BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – Ferran Torres scored a hat trick, Lamine Yamal converted a penalty and Rooney Bulge sparkled in a rare start as Barcelona cruised to a 5-3 victory over Real Betis in La Liga on Saturday.
Barcelona defeated fifth-place Betis in Seville to open up a four-point gap over Real Madrid before hosting Celta Vigo on Sunday.
Torres has progressed from being a bench player to Hansi Flick’s most used striker. The Spanish forward has started more games than Robert Lewandowski, who is 37 years old and has seen his playing time decline.
Torres is Barcelona’s top scorer with 13 goals in all competitions. In La Liga, he has scored 11 points through 15 matches, exceeding his total of 10 points in league games last season. Only Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé has achieved more this season, with 16 games played.
“I already knew that I could be a starter here at Barcelona and that I could compete for this position,” Torres said. “Now we have to achieve further goals. The most important thing was the ability to respond to their early goals.”
It was Torres’ fourth career hat-trick, and he also scored three goals in a 4-2 win at Betis last year.
Baldigi performed well in his third start since the 20-year-old Swedish winger. Joins Barcelona from Copenhagen In the summer. His dribbling was excellent and he fed Torres with a cross to score the winning goal, before making it 3-1 with a powerful shot from just inside the area.
Lewandowski and Rafinha never left the Barcelona bench. This means they will be rested until Eintracht Frankfurt arrive in the Champions League on Tuesday.
inner yamal
The match featured a tactical novelty for Barcelona. Yamal spent most of the match playing in an intelligent and creative midfield role rather than on the right wing.
Yamal stayed connected with his teammates and participated in the passing movement that led to Torres’ opening goal. In the 59th minute, Marcus Rashford’s shot hit the raised arm of Marc Bartra, resulting in Barcelona’s fifth goal.
Flick asked Yamal if he was ready to play in “10th place” and Yamal said he agreed. The coach praised Yamal’s defensive work above all else.
“He had a great game and it gave us one or two options,” Flick said.
Betis eased the pain with a late goal from Diego Llorente and a penalty from Cucho Hernández after Kounde fouled Abde in the box.
Betis, coached by Manuel Pellegrini, were in good form having defeated city rivals Sevilla in the previous match and were unbeaten in eight games. Betis will be overtaken by Espanyol on Sunday if they draw with Rayo Vallecano.
Fermin López returned as a second-half substitute after the Barcelona midfielder missed two games with a foot injury.
Just behind Villarreal
Villarreal defeated Getafe 2-0 thanks to goals from Tahon Buchanan and Georges Mikautadze, keeping them in third place, one point behind Madrid.
Athletic Bilbao beat fourth-placed Atletico Madrid 1-0 before facing Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday.
With five minutes remaining, Alex Berengar scored from a pass from Nico Williams.
Alaves defeated Real Sociedad 1-0 in the regional derby.
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