Messi at the double against Betis after starting on bench

Lionel Messi got here off the bench to attain twice and lead Barcelona to a 5-2 residence victory over Real Betis on Saturday, snapping a four-game winless streak in La Liga for the Catalans.

Antoine Griezmann, Pedri and Ousmane Dembele additionally scored for Barca whereas Antonio Sanabria and Loren Moron replied for Betis, who had Aissa Mandi despatched off on the hour-mark.

Barca’s first league victory since beating Celta Vigo on Oct. 1 took them into eighth within the desk with 11 factors from seven video games. Real Sociedad lead the standings with 17.

Barca’s captain was surprisingly disregarded of the beginning lineup by coach Ronald Koeman, who later defined that Messi was feeling a bit of discomfort after the 2-1 win over Dynamo Kyiv in mid-week and had agreed to begin on the bench.

Koeman’s aspect performed nicely within the first half with out Messi however missed a slew of clear alternatives and located themselves drawing 1-1 when Sanabria cancelled out Dembele’s excellent opening strike on the stroke of halftime.

Messi was introduced on initially of the second interval and promptly produced a chic dummy to permit Griezmann to faucet into an unguarded web and put Barca again in entrance within the 49th minute, the Frenchman lastly making amends for lacking 4 probabilities earlier than the break together with squandering a penalty.

Barca’s all-time high scorer Messi then additional stretched their lead within the 61st by emphatically dispatching a penalty after Aissa Mandi was proven a straight pink card, following a VAR overview, for utilizing his arm to dam a shot from Dembele.

“The whole squad prefers it when Messi is on the pitch because he obviously gives you more options to win the game,” stated Barca’s Jordi Alba.

“Today he came on and changed the game, he is a different player to everybody else and we were a different team when he was on the pitch.”

Koeman added: “He would have started if he hadn’t had any discomfort. We all know who he is and I don’t have any doubts about him, I see him work every day. He didn’t start but he was very important in the second half.”

Betis did handle to drag a objective again with 10 males when striker Loren netted on the far submit to make it 3-2 after a marauding run down the left wing by Alex Moreno.

But Messi quickly put the sport past doubt, smashing the ball into the highest nook after receiving a beautiful backheel from workforce mate Sergi Roberto, whereas 17-year-old Pedri struck the fifth after one other high-quality cross from Sergi Roberto.

“The manager made a decision to not start him and in the second half he really helped us to go on and win the game,” added Alba.

“We all prefer it when he is on the pitch, we’re better with him around.”