FC Barcelona drew 1-1 against Real Betis at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium and extended their lead at the top of LaLiga to four points over EA Sports Real Madrid, who lost to Valencia (1-2) on Saturday. After a first half that ended in a draw thanks to goals from Gavi (min.7) and Natan (min.17), the home side pinned the Andalusian team back in their area after the restart but were unable to get past goalkeeper Adrián San Miguel.
At the end of the game, the protagonist was Raphinha. With the final whistle, Raphinha was visibly annoyed with the referees. When Gil Manzano blew the final whistle, the Brazilian striker went after the referee very upset while his teammate Lewandowski gestured to him to leave. These gestures were unsuccessful, far from calming down, he picked up a ball and kicked it hard.
As he was heading towards the dressing room tunnel, it was his teammate, now injured, Ter Stegen, who tried to calm him down, but he was also unable to do so and both ended up shoving each other on their way to the Barça dressing room. The goalkeeper ended up pushing the attacker, who was still making ostensible gestures of protest, inside the facilities.
🇧🇷🤬 El monumental enfado de Raphinha en el césped de Montjuic tras el #BarçaRealBetis
🇩🇪🧤 Ter Stegen fue quien tuvo que mediar cuando el brasileño discutía con el linier del partidopic.twitter.com/79fYylBwYf
— Carrusel Deportivo (@carrusel) April 5, 2025
At the subsequent press conference, Flick even commented on the matter with a certain degree of sarcasm: “He was angry with me, not with the referee, he was shouting at me”.
Raphinha came on from the bench
Raphinha is one of the best players of the season, at Barcelona and in general. He has 27 goals and 20 assists in all competitions. His numbers are putting him in the running for the Ballon d’Or. However, in recent weeks he has been losing prominence.
He was not selected against Osasuna and it was understood that he arrived on the same day as the international break. He was also not present against Girona and Hansi Flick explained it like this: “Raphinha arrived on Thursday and we are giving him time to recover. It is possible that he will play some minutes in the second half”, said the Barça coach before Barça – Girona.
Now, he has not been in the starting eleven against Real Betis either. There is talk of general fatigue, but it also seems to a greater extent a decision in view of Wednesday’s match against Borussia Dortmund where the German coach wants to have all his artillery.