Bellerín criticises refereeing after Betis lose 5-2 to Barcelona

“One player is punished and another rewarded”: after Betis lost to Barcelona, Héctor Bellerín sharply criticised the refereeing. He felt that some decisions had influenced the game, while also stressing that his team had to take responsibility for its own mistakes.

The match ended 5-2 at La Cartuja in the Spanish league. Bellerín singled out the dismissal of Facundo Bernal: playing with ten men against a side with Barcelona’s attacking quality made Betis’ task harder, he said. But he also noted that Bernal had acknowledged his mistake and apologised to his teammates.

“The sending-off is a mistake we cannot afford,” Bellerín said. He explained that he had spoken with Facundo, who understood his responsibility, and described the closing stages as difficult to negotiate a player down. Betis, he added, kept fighting until the final minutes. Bellerín thus connected his criticism of the officiating with the consequences of the dismissal, without absolving his teammate of responsibility.

Bellerín also defended the level his side had shown before that incident. In his view, the match had remained balanced through the first half and the opening part of the second, despite the challenge of facing Barcelona. He judged that the opposition had not created as many chances as might have been expected in that spell.

He went on to point to decisions he considered contentious for both teams, including a handball after a push and a dangerous-play incident. He felt the players involved had not been treated equally. “The referee’s job is very difficult,” he acknowledged, while describing those situations as particularly debatable. He nevertheless made one thing clear: he did not want to use them as an excuse.

Bellerín also addressed Giovani Lo Celso’s disallowed goal, which was overturned after a video-assistant review for a handball at the start of the move. He said some decisions raised doubts. At the same time, he argued that Betis had shown, with 11 players, that they could compete with the best teams. His comments therefore combined criticism of the refereeing, recognition of Bernal’s mistake and a refusal to make the dismissal the sole explanation for the defeat.