BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Ferran Torres scored a hat trick, Lamine Yamal converted a penalty and Roony Bardghji shone in a rare start as Barcelona roared back to win at Real Betis 5-3 in La Liga on Saturday.
Barcelona’s rout of fifth-placed Betis in Seville increased its lead to four points over Real Madrid before it hosts Celta Vigo on Sunday.
Torres has grown from a bench player to become Hansi Flick’s most used striker. The Spain forward has more starts than Robert Lewandowski, who at 37 is seeing his playing time reduced.
Torres leads Barcelona in scoring with 13 goals across all competitions. He has 11 in La Liga through 15 rounds, surpassing his 10 in the league all last season. Only Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé with 16 has more goals in the domestic league in this campaign.
“I already knew that I could be a starter here in Barcelona and fight for this spot,” Torres said. “Now we have to go for more. The most important thing was our ability to respond to their early goal.”
It was a fourth career hat trick for Torres, who also bagged three goals at Betis in a 4-2 win last year.
Bardghji impressed in his third start since the 20-year-old Sweden winger joined Barcelona from Copenhagen in the summer. His dribbling was electric, and he provided a cross for Torres to score the go-ahead goal before he made it 3-1 with a powerful strike from just inside the area.
Lewandowski and Raphinha never left the bench for Barcelona. That will leave both rested for when Barcelona hosts Eintracht Frankfurt on Tuesday in the Champions League.
Anthony put Betis ahead in the sixth minute at Benito Villamarin Stadium. But Barcelona hit right back through Torres.
Torres slipped behind the defensive line to tap in a squared pass from Jules Koundé.
Torres scored again two minutes later when he acrobatically volleyed a cross from Bardghji between the legs of goalkeeper Álvaro Vallés. After Bardghji scored in the 31st for 3-1, Torres made it a treble in the 40th when his shot from outside the area took a deflection off a defender and wrong-footed Vallés.
Yamal on the inside
The game featured a tactical novelty for Barcelona: Yamal spent most of the match playing in an interior, creative midfield role rather than on the right wing.
Yamal remained in sync with his teammates, participating in the passing move that led to Torres’ first goal. He converted the penalty in the 59th for Barcelona’s fifth after a shot by Marcus Rashford hit the raised arm of Marc Bartra.
Betis eased the pain with late goals by Diego Llorente and Cucho Hernández’s penalty after Koundé fouled Abde in the box.
Rashford had a golden chance to make it six for Barcelona on a solo break only to drag his shot wide with only Vallés to beat.
Manuel Pellegrini’s Betis was flying high coming into the game having beaten fierce city rival Sevilla in the previous round and was unbeaten in eight games overall. Betis will be overtaken by Espanyol on Sunday if it gets a draw with Rayo Vallecano.
Fermín López returned as a second-half substitute after the Barcelona midfielder missed two games with a leg injury.
Villarreal right behind
Tajon Buchanan and Georges Mikautadze scored to help Villarreal beat Getafe 2-0 and stay in third place, one point behind Madrid.
Alaves upset Real Sociedad 1-0 in a Basque Country regional derby.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
By JOSEPH WILSON
Associated Press
