Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi aiming for their best runs as Barcelona take on Real Betis

David Cooper - Writer 14:59 19/01/2018
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  • El Pistolero: Luis Suarez

    Barcelona suffered the first defeat since August as they fell to a 1-0 defeat in the Copa del Rey against city rivals Espanyol on Wednesday.

    With the second leg to come next week, Barca will have the opportunity to turn the quarter-final tie around and they will be looking to get back to winning ways beforehand as Ernesto Valverde’s men travel to Real Betis in La Liga on Sunday.

    Betis are in good form having risen to seventh with wins in three of their last four so with that in mind we take a look at the key facts ahead of the clash.

    – Barcelona are unbeaten in La Liga this season – this is the third occasion in the last nine seasons they have got to this stage without suffering a single defeat (also in 2009/10 and 2012/13).

    – Betis have won three of their last four La Liga matches (L1) – however they have only won one of their last 5 on home soil (D2 L2).

    – Barcelona are unbeaten in their last 13 La Liga matches against Betis (W10 D3), and could equal their best run against them in the competition (14 between 1943-1964).

    – Real Betis have not kept clean sheets against Barcelona in La Liga since September 2002 (W2 D7 L15).

    – If Messi provides an assist in this game, he will have set up a team mate in five consecutive La Liga matches for the first time in his career.

    – And if scores and assist, he will have both scored and assisted in four consecutive La Liga games for the first time ever.

    – Luis Suarez has scored in six consecutive La Liga games (eight goals) and could equal his best run in the competition (seven in December 2015).

    – Only against Athletic (9) has Ruben Castro scored more La Liga goals than against Barcelona (8). Castro (77) could equal Poli Rincon’s goal scoring record for Beits (78) and become their all-time leading scorer in the competition.

    – Only Florian Thauvin (9) has scored more goals than Paulinho (8) among midfielders across the Top 5 European Leagues.

    – Joaquin has scored four goals in La Liga this season, as many as his previous two previous seasons combined for Betis. He has not scored more in a single La Liga season since his first one for Valencia (five in 06/07).

    Statistics provided by Opta

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