Barcelona has rejected the chance to extend their lead on top Laliga to six points when they were held at home with Real Betis on Saturday with 1-1.
Visiting defender Natan canceled the early opener of Gavi and the draw moved Hansi Flick's Barca on 67 points, now four for Rivals Real Madrid.
Madrid was home earlier on Saturday in Valencia to a shock 2-1 defeat against Valencia, but Barca could not fully benefit.
After securing a valuable point of road, in-form betis climbed to fifth in the rankings on 48 points.
2-real Betis has avoided the defeat in their two games against Barcelona in @Lalalaen 2024/25 (2-2 and 1-1), something that they had not achieved in a season in the competition since 2006/07 (1-1).
Resistance. pic.twitter.com/jlt0bngmx8
– Optajose (@Optajose) April 5, 2025
The hosts had been given further motivation by Rivals Madrid who had a shocking loss and had a great start when Gavi opened the score up close, brilliantly assisted by Ferran Torres in a great team of exercise only seven minutes after the kick -off.
Natan, however, led the equalizer from a corner in the 17th minute.
Although they were at the top for most of the competition, Barca could not find a way beyond the 38-year-old goalkeeper Adrian, who made some important rescues to frustrate the hosts.
Adrian's brilliant performance even started before Barca opened the score when he opened Pedri's strike from the box, but there was nothing he could do to prevent Gavi from scored a little later.
Barca continued the pressure after taking the lead, but Betis immediately made a Giovanni Lo Celso corner. Natan jumped higher than defender Ronald Araujo to enter the back of the net.
Adrian came to the rescue again when he made a stunning salvation with one hand save in the 38th minute from a Lamine Yamal Curling Strike.
Flick immersed on Raphinha in the second half and Barca came back even more strongly, the ball dominated but wasted too many opportunities.
The Brazilian attacker was a constant threat and missed a curly attack from the edge of the box, with Adrian made two major efforts to refuse a Jules Kounde strike in the 55th minute and a Fermin Lopez shot in the 85th.
Gavi told Movistar Plus: “We are bitter about the result because we could not take advantage of the opportunities we had during the competition, but we have to accept it and continue.”
Debrief data: Barca's winning series ends
The fallen points marked the end of Barcelona's Nine-Match Winning Streak in Laliga, although Flick's run of victories was still the longest that the club has reached since a 12-match streak under Luis enrique long ago in 2016.
It is a series of results that its Barca team has strongly controled the title race. Even if they could not fully claim a six -point advantage compared to Madrid, they lead with four with eight games to go.
Betis may not have expected to triumph, but the draw also means that their own winning run – a series of six competition matches – is also over, which means that they are equal to their own club record instead of setting up a new one. However, this is the first season since 2006-07 in which they have become unbeaten in both competition meetings against Barca.
Barca dominated the property in this game, with 74.1% of the ball, but they did not make enough of it, so that an expected goals (XG) in total were generated only 1.31, with 13 shots and only five on goal.
The home team was short of their best after the early goal of Gavi, a strike that came to the 100th performance of the Spain -midfielder in Laliga.
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