Claudio Ranieri`s men started strongly in Seville and looked as if they were going to bounce back from their midweek Champions League defeat to Werder Bremen when Marco Di Vaio gifted them the lead after nine minutes.

But their advantage was short-lived as it took Betis just 20 minutes to pull level through Edu and Barcelona took an outright lead in the Primera Liga after they won their their match with Numancia on Sunday 1 - 0 .

In Saturday`s other match, Real Sociedad climbed off the bottom with a morale-boosting win at the expense of Atletico Madrid.

A solitary goal four minutes before the interval from Darko Kovacevic proved enough to separate the teams at the Anoeta Stadium.