Barcelona: Víctor Valdés; Adriano
(Dani Alvés 39'), Mascherano, Jordi Alba; Fàbregas (Marc Bartra
46'), Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta; Pedro, Messi, David Villa (Alexis 77'). 3-4-3.
Celta: Javi Varas; Hugo Mallo, Jonathan Vila,
Túñez, Roberto Lago; Oubiña, Álex López
(Park Chu Young 79'); Augusto Fernández (Toni 87'), Mario Bermejo (De
Lucas 66'), Krohn-Dehli; Iago Aspas. 4-2-3-1.
Goals:
1-0. 21. Adriano. Ran on to Pedro's return pass and
fired shot inside near post.
1-1. 24. Bermejo. Poked ball in to net on
follow up after Valdés saved from Alex.
2-1. 26. David Villa.
Steered shot wide of Javi Varas after Iniesta laid ball back.
3-1. 61.
Jordi Alba. Picked up Villa's back-heel pass and rounded keeper to score.
Yellow cards: Iago Aspas 62', Oubiña 71', Marc Bartra 72'.
Barcelona confirmed their best ever start to a season after beating Celta 3-1 on Saturday evening. Tito Vilanova put out an aggressive 3-4-3 line-up for this match, and that with a back three of converted midfielders (two of whom were to score the goals). Before kick-off Messi was presented with the European Golden Boot trophy and Xavi paraded the "Prince of Asturias sporting achievement award" which he won recently together with Iker Casillas, and Messi was sporting his new boots, with the name of his newly born son Thiago engraved upon them. The Argentinian forward can be pardoned for being a bit too selfish early on in wanting to dedicate a goal to his new offspring, but Víctor Valdés had to react quickly to stifle an early attack from Iago Aspas. With just over twenty minutes gone however Adriano opened the scoring after connecting with a return pass from Pedro, and although Mario Bermejo equalised three minutes later after Valdés could only push out a shot from Alex López, David Villa restored the lead almost immediately after combining with Iniesta. Aspas came close to levelling the match once again when he shot just wide of the far post soon after the restart, but a few minutes later Jordi Alba made it three after Villa dragged Iniesta's pass in to his path with his heel, the referee waving away Celta's appeals that the full back picked up the ball in an offside position. That was enough to seal another win which takes the Catalans on to 28 points from their first ten games, beating the record set by coach Louis Van Gaal in the 1996/7 season.