A recap of Barcelona's sensational midweek thrashing of Getafe CF, as goals from Lionel Messi (2), Luis Suarez (2), Neymar and Xavi rounded off a memorable win for the Blaugrana
FC Barcelona produced one of the best performances of the season so far on Tuesday night, as they comprehensively overwhelmed mid-table Getafe CF at the Camp Nou en route to an emphatic 6-0 victory. With the Suarez, Messi, Neymar trident starting up top, Barcelona immediately established themselves as the superior side and before too long, their dominance was reflected in the scoreline.
Lionel Messi got the ball rolling with a penalty after 10 minutes, before Luis Suarez, Neymar and Xavi struck within the space of five incredible first-half minutes to extend Barça’s lead to four within the first half-hour. Luis Suarez added a fifth before the break, and Messi rounded off the scoring with a sixth just after the break. Watch out Bayern Munich; Barcelona are better than ever before.
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Barcelona
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Getafe
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Possession
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73%
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27%
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Total Shots
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20
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7
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Shots on Target
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12
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3
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Corners
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5
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6
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Fouls
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11
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5
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Offsides
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1
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3
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Yellow Cards
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0
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0
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Red Cards
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0
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0
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As expected, Luis Enrique made four changes to the side that triumphed in the Catalan derby on Saturday, as Marc Bartra, Jeremy Mathieu, Adriano Correia and Xavi rotated into the line-up, possibly with one eye on next week's clash with Bayern Munich. Moving out of the starting XI was the suspended Jordi Alba, along with Gérard Piqué, Javier Mascherano and Andres Iniesta, all of whom got some well deserved rest. This of course meant another start in attack for Barça's fabled attacking trio of Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar; would this be enough to secure another victory for the Blaugrana?
***
Perhaps similar to the weekend, Barcelona made a good, promising start to affairs at the Camp Nou; maybe they weren't as dominant as they were on Saturday but they were still superior and it didn't take long for this to be reflected in the scoreline.
Full of confidence following his recent run of good form, Luis Suarez has often been the key to unlocking opposing defenses in recent fixtures and tonight was no different. All it took was a smart run by the Uruguayan and a pass to match from Marc Bartra and Suarez was soon sent tumbling to the turf by Alvaro Arroyo. The referee had no choice but to point to the spot and up stepped Lionel Messi to apply the finish.
With his chequered recent history from the penalty spot, this was far from a given but Messi kept his cool and then some, almost humiliating Kiko Casilla with his cheeky, impudent finish.
10 minutes gone at the Camp Nou and Getafe's gameplan was in ruins. They entered proceedings hoping to frustrate the Blaugrana and gain another point, but now they were facing an uphill battle to merely avoid disaster. With 80 minutes to go, it seemed like a question of how many goals Barça would go on to score.
Heck, after Claudio Bravo helped maintain our slender lead with an impressive double-save to deny Fredy Hinestroza and Baba Diawara, the more relevant question would become: how many could Barça score in the first-half alone?
After creating the first goal, it seemed apt that Luis Suarez would go one better and score the second of the evening. It was especially apt given that it was Messi who was returning the favour. His pass was sublime as per usual and Suarez displayed all the composure we’ve grown to expect from him, coolly dispatching his volley past the helpless Casilla in the Getafe net. 25 minutes were on the clock, Barça had doubled their lead.
But they wouldn’t stop there. Within minutes, Neymar had added another, scoring arguably the best goal of the game so far. All it took was a drop of the shoulder and Neymar was past a litany of bamboozled Getafe defenders, ready to apply a superb finish into the bottom corner to score Barcelona's third of the night. Getafe's night was going from bad to worse, and then it hit rock bottom.
How you might ask? Well, Xavi had the answer, compounding their misery and an incredible spell of dominance from the hosts to score Barcelona's fourth. This time it was Neymar who provided the assist, teeing up our club captain for a strike on goal from outside the area. Having seen his team utterly destroy Getafe in the past half hour, it was obvious that Xavi would oblige by testing his luck -- and the end result suggested he should do so more often, as his shot arrowed into the top corner of Casilla's net. Superb.
Poor Getafe, they were punch drunk and Barcelona just kept up serving up the shots, so much so that the Madrid-based outfit probably won’t remember the first period. The main culprit was Luis Suarez, and he got his second of the night to seal the first-half Manita, again displaying his clinical finishing ability to strike an Ovechkin-esque first-timer from the edge of the area off a cheeky flicked assist from Xavi.
Sensational. Relentless. Irrepressible.
***
With a five goal lead at the break, one could have forgiven FC Barcelona for taking their foot off the gas after the interval. I mean, the three points were secured and we’ve played a lot of football recently. Why not take a break, mid-match?
Well, that wouldn’t help us score more goals now would it? Sergio Busquets might have been withdrawn for Sergi Roberto, but Lionel Messi is in the race for the Pichichi and he was more than happy to continue piling on the misery for poor old Getafe, grabbing Barça’s sixth of the night just minutes after the restart.
Again, it was Luis Suarez who was the architect, feeding Messi in space ready for the Argentine to pull the trigger and unleash another superlative strike on goal, resulting in yet another spectacular Barça goal. This was just unfair.
Luis Enrique’s response to the sixth?
Bring on another striker of course!
Enter Pedro for Xavi around the hour mark, albeit after Barça had slowed the tempo of their play somewhat markedly. Now we were content to just pass the ball around and retain possession, as a little bit of professional courtesy kicked in. We didn’t want to rack up 10 goals on the night, because what would have been the point? Also, aren’t we saving that for Bayern Munich next week?
Even in spite of the changes and our switch back down to first gear, Barça still created chances and perhaps should have added to their tally. Suarez blazed over from close range, a penalty appeal was turned down and Messi forced a fine save from a free-kick – Getafe held firm and kept the score down with some better defensive work.
Barcelona didn’t mind, their work for the evening was done. Dani Alves departed to a good ovation on the day that news emerged suggesting he might extend his stay in Catalunya, Martin Montoya his replacement, and while Getafe had chances to reduce the deficit, a combination of bad luck, good recovery play and the frame of the goal kept them at bay and gifted Bravo his 20th clean sheet of the La Liga season.
I know one thing for certain: I wouldn’t want to be in Cordoba’s shoes this weekend...
Until then, Visca el Barça!
(Apologies for the late game thread and delayed review! You know we’ll be better next time round – thanks for understanding J)
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from Barca Blaugranes - All Posts http://ift.tt/1bb9yBB
