Barcelona vs Espanyol. Spanish La Liga.
Camp NouAttendance89,453.
Sunday 8 May 2016 19:17, UK
Barcelona thrashed local rivals Espanyol 5-0 to move to within one win of a 24th La Liga title.
Lionel Messi opened the scoring in the eighth minute with a brilliant free-kick, while Luis Suarez scored twice in the second half to move onto 37 goals for the season, putting him in prime position to collect the Pichichi award for top scorer.
Rafinha delighted the home fans by netting his first goal since returning from a serious knee injury, and then Neymar rounded off the scoring by tapping in Suarez's low pass.
Barca stay top of La Liga by moving on to 88 points, one ahead of Real Madrid in second and three above Atletico Madrid, who drop out of the title race after losing 2-1 at Levante.
Messi put Barca ahead with a sumptuous free-kick. He stood over the free-kick from 22 yards and wrapped his left foot round the ball, sending it curling beautifully into the top corner, just beyond the reach of goalkeeper Pau Lopez.
The reigning champions had a goal ruled out barely a minute later when Messi followed up Neymar's parried shot and Ivan Rakitic poked the loose ball in from a couple of yards out. The Croatian was ruled offside, although an Espanyol player lying on the floor appeared to have played him on.
Messi's frustrations led to him being booked immediately after for a foul. It was the first yellow card of the game and there were a further four before the end of the half, all handed to Espanyol players. Barca had a penalty appeal turned down before the break, too, Messi tripped by Ruben Duarte when the defender was on the floor.
Barca's only other chances in the first half were from free-kicks, one from Messi and one from Neymar. Espanyol offered little at the other end, their tactics mainly consisting of containing Barca with tough challenges, and their only opportunity came from a free-kick Marc-Andre ter Stegen failed to catch, but Barca's defence did enough to prevent the visitors pouncing.
Even though Espanyol rarely looked like scoring, Barca needed another goal to put their minds at ease. It arrived seven minutes into the second half when Dani Alves intercepted a misplaced pass by Pape Diop and swiftly gave it to Messi, who in turn slipped the ball into the path of Suarez to calmly smash high into the net.
Suarez showed his striker's instinct again for the third, fighting off a defender in the area to scrappily head home from a corner, scoring his 37th goal of the campaign, one more than Espanyol have managed in total.
Rafinha capitalised on an embarrassing error by Lopez to add the fourth, and then Neymar further thrilled the crowing home fans by putting the finishing touch to a sparkling move between Suarez and Alves.
