Barcelona sealed a massive 5-0 win against Real Betis in their latest La Liga fixture, on Sunday at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium. Making their first starts for Barcelona, Portugal duo Joao Felix and Joao Cancelo impressed for Xavi Hernandez, and also registered their names in the scoresheet.
Felix opened the scoring in the 25th-minute, and then made a clever dummy, which helped Robert Lewandowski make it 2-0 in the 32nd-minute. Torres, who also made his first start of the season, made it 3-0 in the 62nd-minute with a brilliant free-kick, which he curled to the bottom right corner. He also became the first Barcelona player to score directly from a free-kick since Lionel Messi did against Valencia in May 2021.
Here is the video of Torres’ free-kick goal:
Substitute Raphinha scored from outside the box in the 66th-minute and then a solo effort from Cancelo in the 81st-minute capped off an impressive 5-0 victory. The win helped Barcelona move to pole position in the league, one point ahead of Real Madrid, who will face Real Sociedad on Sunday.
Commenting on his free-kick goal, Torres revealed, “My idea was to hit the free kick over the wall, it went a little wrong, but it went in, which is the important thing.”
“It is a motivation to continue working, I am mentally very calm, and in the end there is a lot that no one sees, and everything ends up paying off. We are a team that has made a qualitative leap with the new additions, we are working very well and this year we are going to have a more consolidated team”, he further added.
Meanwhile, Barcelona head coach Xavi had special praise for Felix and Cancelo after the match. “I would underscore that I see both (Félix and Cancelo) as very happy to be here and motivated to help the team. They give us more variety and improve the team thanks to their individual talent, and today the team was brilliant”, he said.
