The loanee from Atletico Madrid scored one goal and assisted on another in Saturday’s 5-0 victory as Xavi’s team rumbled through Catalunya.

Joao Felix had one goal and one assist while controlling play for the majority of his 64 minutes on the field as Barcelona thrashed Real Betis 5-0 on Saturday. The Portugal international, who was making his full debut, allayed any concerns about his compatibility with this Barca club by giving his team the decisive edge they required in a rout.

Felix did a great job of starting the scoring by latching onto Oriol Romeu’s diagonal ball, eluding the goalkeeper, and then converting from a tight angle. His mobility had an impact on the second goal, as the new acquisition muffed Andreas Christensen’s ball, which dropped into the path of Robert Lewandowski, who buried his effort.

But in the first half, Barca never really felt at ease. The rare errant ball or poorly timed run exposed them at the back, but Marc-Andre ter Stegen made a crucial save to preserve a 2-0 advantage at halftime.After the break, though, the Blaugrana settled down completely. The third goal was scored by Ferran Torres, who was given his first season-opening start. He curled a free kick into the bottom corner. Raphinha, who had been on the bench, scored the fourth goal with a slashed effort from outside the box. Just before the game’s end, Joao Cancelo joined the action by evading his defender and beating the goalkeeper with his first Barca goal.As the game progressed, Betis offered fairly little, but with Felix at the centre of it all, this Barcelona team showed how dangerous they can be.Marc-Andre ter Stegen, goalkeeper and defender (7/10): produced a superb save at 2-0 to maintain the advantage. had little else to do. It’s nice to start over 7/10 for Joao CanceloBefore scoring the fifth, there were a few driving runs and some beautiful passing. He’s still figuring things out, but once he does, he might be disastrous.7/10 for Jules KoundeWillian Jose was successfully handled by him, and he won all of his one-on-one matches. (7/10) Andreas ChristensenMost of the time clean. Still more effective when paired with Araujo than Kounde.(8.5/10) Alejandro BaldeAs consistently as ever scrambled forward, making things as unpleasant as possible for Bellerin. Unfortunately, after a few driving runs, I didn’t get an assist.