Lionel Messi inspires rampant Barcelona win over Espanyol

Lionel Messi scored two sublime free kicks to help Barcelona to a 4-0 win over their city rivals.

Barcelona came into this game knowing a win would allow them to open up a three-point gap on their nearest challengers in what has been a remarkably tight La Liga season so far. They were able to achieve this thanks to a Man of the Match performance from Lionel Messi as well as impressive displays from other players such as Ousmane Dembele, Luis Suarez and Arturo Vidal.

This looked like a tricky match for Barcelona considering they had been unable to beat Espanyol in both fixtures they played at the RCDE Stadium last season even though they were fighting relegation and Rubi has had a huge impact on the team. However, Barca were in irresistible form as they swept them away in the first half to consign Periquitos to a fourth straight league defeat.

Borja Iglesias had the first major chance of the match when he received the ball on the edge of the box with last defender Gerard Pique putting him under pressure, however, he could only fire wide. Suarez had the first clear sight of goal for Barcelona as Messi found him in a bit of space inside the box, but he was only able to fire the ball at Diego Lopez with his weak foot. Messi opened the scoring not long after in the 16th minute with a curling free kick that flew into the top corner.

The Argentine was far from done, though, as he attempted to dribble past four players just outside the box, he then lost his footing but kept hold of the ball and somehow picked out Dembele in space when he got back up and the French winger cut on to his right foot before curling a shot around the defender and past the goalkeeper. He then attempted to top that assist with a first time chipped ball over the top into the path of Suarez, but unfortunately, he was only able to hit the post.

They were unfortunate once again when they broke on the opposition and Dembele found Ivan Rakitic with a cross into the box, he was only able to head it at the goalkeeper and Messi headed the rebound on to the post.

Suarez was able to get on the scoresheet, though, when Dembele found him with a defence-splitting pass and he was able to hold off the defender before shooting through Lopez’s legs from a tight angle. This made it 3-0 before half-time and was an accurate representation of how well Barcelona were playing, although Espanyol weren’t playing bad by any means.

Espanyol were better in the second half and made it a highly competitive affair, however, they conceded another as Messi once again showed his free kick mastery with a precise effort that flew into the other top corner. Rubi’s men thought they had scored a consolation in the 75th minute when Oscar Duarte got on the end of a free kick, but VAR ruled it out due to offside.

Barca had a few scares defensively but they did look relatively solid and this is a second league clean sheet in a row which is a positive sign. Suarez did well on his return from injury with his work rate and willingness to make runs in behind complementing the team’s set-up well. Levante, Celta Vigo, Getafe, Eibar and Leganes are the next five league fixtures for the Catalans, so they have a chance to open up the gap on the rest of the title challengers.