Barcelona put on a scintillating performance to crush visitors Real Betis 5-0 on Saturday and provisionally move top of the La Liga standings.

Xavi Hernandez’s side moved up to 13 points from five games.

Loan signing Joao Felix put Barcelona ahead after 25 minutes with a shot from a tight angle after he had missed his first attempt following a superb Oriol Romeu cross.

Robert Lewandowski doubled the lead after a neat move in which Andreas Christensen slipped a pass to Felix who left the ball to give the Poland striker an easy finish.

Ferran Torres scored his third goal of the season with a low free-kick into the bottom right corner in the 62nd minute before substitute Raphinha netted from the edge of the area to make it 4-0.

Joao Cancelo scored his first goal since joining Barca on loan from Manchester City to complete the rout nine minutes from time.

“It wasn’t a perfect game but it was excellent. We had a lot of brilliant moments. This is the way,” coach Xavi said on the triumph.

Mendy’s return

AS Monaco missed the chance to go four points clear at the top of Ligue 1 after Lorient’s Romain Faivre scored a late equaliser to salvage a 2-2 draw in a game that saw defender Benjamin Mendy make his return to professional football on Sunday.

Mendy, who was acquitted of rape and attempted rape by a British court in July, came on as a substitute at wing-back for the final 20 minutes. Mendy, 29, last played for Manchester City in August 2021. He signed for Lorient on a two-year deal.

Inter hero

Inter Milan has a new star player — with a familiar name in Serie A — as Marcus Thuram helped the Nerazzurri beat fierce rival AC Milan 5-1 in a derby match to maintain their perfect start to the season.

Thuram’s father Lilian, who won the World Cup with France in 1998, played as a defender for Parma and Juventus. Thuram scored a superb goal on Saturday to double Inter’s lead shortly before halftime, having had a significant hand in the fifth-minute opener.

Inter are now the only team to have won their four opening matches and the Nerazzurri moved two points ahead of Juventus, which beat Lazio 3-1 earlier. Milan are three points behind Inter.

Defending champions Napoli are five points behind Inter after coming back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Genoa.

With inputs from Reuters