BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Lionel Messi came off the bench at halftime to score two goals as Barcelona beat 10-man Real Betis 5-2 on Saturday to end its four-game winless streak in the Spanish league.

Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman said that he gave Messi some rare rest during the first half after his star player felt he needed more time to recover from Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League. It was Messi’s first league game as a substitute in more than a year.

“If he had been completely fine, he would have played (from the start),” Koeman said. “We decided to leave him on the bench in case we needed him. (...) In the second half he was very important.”

Ousmane Dembele blasted a shot past former Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo to give the hosts the lead in the 22nd minute.

Betis forward Antonio Sanabria equalized in the final seconds of the first half that featured four clear misses by Barcelona’s struggling forward Antoine Griezmann, including a penalty blocked by Bravo.

Messi spent the first half tucked in a winter coat and wearing a face mask like other substitutes in the otherwise empty Camp Nou. That all changed when Messi went on at the start of the second half for Ansu Fati and had a decisive impact.

Messi only needed four minutes to impact the match when he smartly skipped over a pass to let it run though for Griezmann to tap home.

Messi continued to show his playmaking skills. Deep inside Betis’ area, Messi turned and fed a pass to Dembele, whose shot was goal-bound when defender Aissa Mandi blocked it with his arm. A video review led to Mandi being shown a red card for impeding a clear goal.

Messi stepped up and causally blasted his spot kick into the top right corner to make it 3-1 in the 61st.

Betis coach Manuel Pellegrini complained about the use of VAR, which advised the referee that he had not seen the handball by Mandi.

“I don’t know if the referee or VAR is refereeing. We can’t have two referees,” Pellegrini said.

Lorenzo Morón got one back for Betis in the 73rd after Barcelona’s defense struggled to mark winger Álex Moreno.

But Messi put the result beyond doubt when Sergi Roberto set him up with a fine back-heeled pass for the Argentina forward to get his sixth goal in all competitions this season.

Roberto also assisted Pedro “Pedri” González in the 90th as the 17-old-year midfielder claimed his first league goal.

OTHER RESULTS

Rafa Mir scored to give Huesca a 1-1 draw with Eibar, which had gone ahead on a goal by Esteban Burgos.

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