Antoine Griezmann scored twice on his home league debut for Barcelona as the hosts thrashed Betis at the Camp Nou.
Betis opened the scoring when Nabil Fekir slotted a smart finish past Marc-Andre ter Stegen after 15 minutes.
Griezmann leveled just before half-time before adding another after the break to turn the match around. The Frenchman’s second was a stunning curled effort.
Carles Perez made it 3-1 with a controlled finish and Jordi Alba added another on the hour mark.
Griezmann then turned provider as he set up substitute Arturo Vidal who fired home from close range.
Loren Moron grabbed a late consolation for Betis with arguably the pick of the goals but the damage had already been and the match finished 5-2.
Barcelona – Real Betis
Possession
70%-30%
Shots
20-4
Shots on Target
7-3
Corners
11-0
Fouls
14-12
As they nearly always do at home, Barcelona dominated the possession on Sunday while notching up an impressive 20 shots.
Real Betis were clinical in front of goal – registering 4 shots, 3 on target, and 2 goals.
If the visitors had been able to conjure up more chances, we could have seen a different end result.
Griezmann, signed for €120 million from Atletico Madrid in the summer transfer window, was under pressure to perform with the likes of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele all sidelined due to injury.
The World Cup winner endured as poor competitive debut against Bilbao on the opening day of the season, and will be extremely happy to have opened his account.
Griezmann’s first goal was a close-range effort that slipped under goalkeeper Dani Martin is the Betis goal.
However, Dani Martin could do very little about Griezmann’s second goal as the Frenchman whipped in a trademark left-footed strike form the edge of the penalty area.
Ansu Fati became the second-youngest first-time player in Barcelona’s history when he came on for Carles Perez on 78 minutes.
At just 16 years and 298 days, Fati didn’t look out of place as he impressed with an eye-catching performance on his debut.
The youngster almost scored when his shot went just wide of the post and he also set up Griezmann for a hat-trick chance however the striker’s shot was saved.
Fati will be hoping to get more chances as the season progresses.