First Division - Day 37

Barcelona 5 - Espanyol 0

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Dani Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Jordi Alba (Mathieu 70’); Rakitic (Rafinha 73’), Busquets, Iniesta (Arda Turan 73’); Messi, Luis Suárez, Neymar. 4-3-3.
Espanyol: Pau López; Javi López, Enzo Roco, Rubén Duarte, Víctor Alvarez; Víctor Sánchez, Cañas (Paco Montañés 72’), Pape Diop; Hernán Pérez (Rober 66’), Caicedo (Gerard Moreno 46’), Marco Asensio. 4-3-3.

Goals:
1-0. 08. Messi. Curled free kick over defensive wall and wide of Pau López.
2-0. 52. Luis Suárez. Picked up short Messi pass and fired shot past keeper.
3-0. 61. Luis Suárez. Got free of marker to head Neymar corner inside far post.
4-0. 73. Rafinha. Turned ball into empty net after Pau fumbled Neymar centre.
5-0. 82. Neymar. Tap-in on far post after Suárez laid across Dani Alves pass.

Yellow cards: Messi 12’, Pape Diop 19’, Hernán Pérez 28’, Víctor Alvarez 36’, Cañas 40’, Javi López 62’, Pau López 70’, Rober 69’, Mascherano 90’.

Barcelona stay in top spot after they thrashed city neighbours Espanyol 5-0 in the Nou Camp, and a win at Granada next weekend will ensure them a second league title in a row! Messi started things off in the eighth minute with a well struck free kick, and a few minutes later Rakitic got the ball in the net only to be pulled up for a borderline offside. Soon after the restart though Messi put Luis Suárez through for him to make it two, and some ten minutes later the Uruguayan striker headed a third from Neymar’s corner, his 37 th of the season in the league keeping him on track for the Liga “Pichichi” prize and the European Golden Boot. With a quarter of an hour to go substitute Rafinha got in on the act, running the ball in to the empty net just a minute after coming on after Pau López fumbled a cross from Neymar, and Neymar himself completed the scoring after Dani Alves and Luis Suárez combined to set him up.