Barcelona denied blatant goal during Real Betis draw

Sport Desk: Luis Suarez rescued a late draw for Barcelona at Real Betis, with the champions not being allowed a goal which crossed the line.

Betis dominated and hit the woodwork through Dani Ceballos and Ruben Castro before Alex Alegria put them ahead.

Barca were furious not to be level when Aissa Mandi hooked the ball away from about a foot behind the line, with La Liga not having goalline technology.

But Suarez converted Lionel Messi's pass to level in the last minute.

Barcelona remain one point behind Real Madrid, who have two games in hand including Sunday's home game with Real Sociedad (19:45 GMT).

La Liga is the only one of Europe's top five leagues not to have goalline technology - with the Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 all bringing it in in the past few years.

The Spanish league has continually said it will not bring in the system because it is too expensive. But the calls for it will increase after Barcelona were denied a legitimate goal that could have a big impact in the title race.

Soon after Real Betis took the lead, Aleix Vidal's cross was sent towards goal by a Betis defender and Mandi slid the ball off the crossbar and away - but replays clearly showed it was well over the line.

Barca boss Luis Enrique was diplomatic when asked about the incident after the game. "Referees need help, be it cameras or whatever, for decisions which favours us or not," he said.

Despite the fact Barcelona had a legitimate goal ruled out, the champions were fortunate - on the balance of play - to have even drawn.

Betis, who rise one place to 13th, had 17 shots to Barcelona's 10 and Ceballos hit the crossbar from outside the box before Castro smashed the post from close range - both at 0-0.

They had a glorious chance to seal the game at 1-0 when top scorer Castro was played in one-on-one as Barca took risks, but fired the ball straight at keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Agencies

risingbd/Dhaka/Jan 29, 2017/Nasim