Barcelona held by Betis

Barcelona remain second after Real Madrid's last-gasp win against Espanyol last night, the contrast of Real's late winner and Barca's late conceding of an equaliser highlighting the change in fortunes between the sides in recent months.

Real lead the standings with four match remaining, on the same number of points and an inferior goal-difference but top on the head-to-head rule. Barcelona only have themselves to blame after missing several opportunities to put to bed a match they dominated.

Barca had gone one-up on five minutes when a rash challenge by Juanito brought down Deco just inside the area and Ronaldinho made no mistake with the spot-kick, which he sent powerfully into the left-hand side of the goal for his 17th La Liga goal of the season.

Samuel Eto'o was inches away from converting a low Giovanni van Bronckhorst cross five minutes later, although while the hosts were dominating Betis looked mildly threatening on the break, Victor Valdes desperately tipping away a centred delivery from Alberto Rivera's left-wing free-kick on 13 minutes.

Eto'o really should have doubled Barca's lead when he somehow headed an inch-perfect Deco cross wide of Pedro Contreras' goal on 24 minutes, while Messi and Xavi fired wide when they should have at least found the target before the move of the match and one of the saves of the season kept Barca at bay.

On 32 minutes the hosts carved the relegation-battling Andalusians in two, Deco finding Ronaldinho on the left and the Brazil star's majestic cross acrobatically bicycle-kicked by Eto'o only for Contreras to make a world class stop to tip the goal-bound volley over the bar. Even the home fans gave Contreras a standing ovation for the stop, which kept Betis in the match.

Iniesta and Eto'o created but missed good opportunities over the following eight-minute period, but a rare error from veteran Barca defender Lilian Thuram almost gifted Betis an equaliser just before the break, his failure to clear a routine long ball giving the ball straight to Fernando, who was one-on-one and should have scored but his finish trickled just wide of the left-hand post.

The reigning champions brought on Juliano Belletti for Gianluca Zambrotta at half-time and after a slow start to the half Betis introduced free-kick specialist Marcos Assuncao just before the hour. He almost had an immediate impact, taking a free-kick that Valdes did well to hold onto, and Betis then through caution to the wind by bringing on Brazilian attacking duo Sobis and Robert, going three up-front in the process.

Juanito made amends for giving away the penalty with a superb saving challenge on Eto'o just inside the box, while Xavi shot just wide with Contreras scrambling across on 70 minutes.

The match started to open up, the sides exchanging attacks and Betis looking more threatening from open play and Assuncao's set-pieces, while another superb Barca move failed to provide a goal when Andres Iniesta's great work and ball from the right was dummied by Deco but sent wide by Eto'o.

Betis almost grabbed an equaliser when Sobis cleverly found full back Isadora on the left-hand side of the Barca box, but an excellent stop by Valdes kept them in the lead with only four minutes remaining.

Barca did not heed the warning and in the last minute of normal time a quickly-taken free kick by Assuncao caught them napping, leaving Sobis free on the right to drill a low finish at the near post which Valdes failed to keep out.

Barcelona had two more chances to win the match in injury-time, Iniesta and Deco both shooting over, but Betis held on for a point that moves them six points clear of the drop zone into 15th with four games remaining.