Barcelona are just two matches away from a historic unbeaten La Liga campaign after defeating Villarreal 5-1 at the Camp Nou.
Barca were the first to apply pressure in the final third, with Lionel Messi gaining possession on the edge of the box in the seventh minute and letting fly with a curler, bending the ball wide of the left upright.
The Catalans took the lead just after the 10-minute mark when Ousmane Dembele’s shot proved too hot for Villarreal goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo to handle, allowing the onrushing Philippe Coutinho to smash the ball in on the rebound.
Villarreal almost registered an immediate response at the other end as Pablo Fornals went on a blistering run and unleashed a curling strike towards the top corner, forcing Jasper Cillessen into acrobatics to save at full stretch.
Ernesto Valverde’s side doubled their advantage moments later through Paulinho, who capped off a blistering Barca counter by tapping Lucas Digne pass across the face of goal into the back of the net.
Dembele put the visitors under pressure again in the 22nd minute, running at their defence and getting an angled shot away, forcing Asenjo to get down quickly to palm the ball away.
The La Liga champions made it 3-0 on the stroke of half time when Messi timed his run into the box to perfection to meet Andres Iniesta’s through-pass and guide the ball beyond the Villarreal stopper with the slightest of touches to put his side almost out of sight.
The visitors pulled one back less than 10 minutes into the restart under fortuitous circumstances as substitute Nicola Sansone deflected Fornals’s shot beyond Cillessen and into the net, completely unintentionally and amid claims of handball from the hosts.
Coutinho though he had claimed his second of the night in the 72nd minute when he blasted Dembele’s cutback over the line from close range, but the goal was rightly ruled out for an offside against the Brazil international.
Sansone almost added another goal to his tally moments later when he struck a thunderbolt towards the Barca from 20 yards, putting his effort just inches over the crossbar.
Source:sportsmole
