First Division - Day 4

Racing Santander 1 - Barcelona 4

Racing: Toño; Pinillos, Morris, Henrique, Sepsi; Diop (Colsa 56'), Lacen; Arana, Munitis (Luis García 69'), Oscar Serrano; Geijo (Xisco 56'). 4-2-3-1.
Barcelona: Víctor Valdés; Dani Alves, Piqué (Márquez 56'), Puyol, Abidal; Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Keita; Messi (Iniesta 64'), Ibrahimovic (Pedro 52'), Henry. 4-3-3.

Goals:
0-1. 20. Ibrahimovic. Far post header in off post and keeper from Messi cross.
0-2. 24. Messi. Controlled Xavi pass on chest and dummied past keeper to score.
0-3. 27. Piqué. Controlled Ibrahimovic back-heel pass and shot wide of keeper.
0-4. 63. Messi. Picked up Xavi pass and cut across area before shooting in to net.
1-4. 72. Oscar Serrano. Ran through centre and curled shot in off post.

Yellow cards: Diop 19', Lacen 54', Xisco 77', Pinillos 89'.

Barcelona opened the midweek round of games with a 1-4 victory over Racing Santander on Tuesday night, throwing down the gauntlet to their arch rivals Real Madrid.

Three goals in a seven minute period midway through the first half were enough to kill the match as a contest, Ibrahimovic starting things off with his fourth in as many games to beat Stoichkov's club record for a debutant. The Swedish striker bundled the ball in to the net off a defender, the keeper and the post after Xavi played a free kick out wide for Messi to cross in, and he could have scored a minute or so later with a shot which came back off the post.

A couple of minutes later though Messi finished off a quick passing move with a well taken goal, and a clever back-heel pass by Ibrahimovic whilst surrounded by a circle of five defenders made the third for Piqué.

Messi got his second of the night after the restart with another "house special", cutting across from the right wing before curling a shot wide of Toño, and soon afterwards he was substituted to a standing ovation from the home fans. They finally got something to cheer about themselves when Oscar Serrano battled through to fire a shot in off the post, but that was scant consolation.