Copa del Rey

Semi finals, first leg

Barcelona 7 – Valencia 0

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Aleix Vidal, Piqué (Marc Bartra 61’), Mathieu, Jordi Alba (Adriano 70’); Arda Turan, Busquets, Iniesta (Sergi Roberto 46’); Messi, Luis Suárez, Neymar. 4-3-3.
Valencia: Mat Ryan; Barragán, Mustafi, Aderlan Santos, Siqueira (Rubén Vezo 46’); Danilo Barbosa (Feghouli 33’), Dani Parejo, Andre Gomes; Cancelo (Cheryshev 59’), Rodrigo, Gayá. 4-3-3.

Goals:
1-0. 07. Luis Suárez. Picked up Neymar pass and struck shot across Ryan.
2-0. 12. Luis Suárez. Curled shot into net after Vidal laid back Busquets pass.
3-0. 29. Messi. Fired shot wide of Ryan after Neymar flicked on Iniesta centre.
4-0. 58. Messi. Ran on to beat keeper after Luis Suárez played on Turan pass.
5-0. 74. Messi. Won ball off Parejo and drove shot through hands of keeper.
6-0. 83. Luis Suárez. Steered far post header into net after Adriano crossed in.
7-0. 88. Luis Suárez. Connected with Turan pass and turned shot in off post.

Yellow cards: Iniesta 14’, Piqué 24’, Feghouli 65’, Cheryshev 79’, Arda Turan 84’ / red cards: Mustafi 45’.

Barcelona sentenced their semi-final cup tie in the first leg on Wednesday night, a humiliating 7-0 victory over Valencia making the return match a pure formality. Luis Suárez scored twice in the first twelve minutes, the first after Neymar put him through, and the second after Aleix Vidal laid back a long ball from Busquets. Messi added a third on the half hour mark, and then hit the bar before winning a penalty off Mustafi, who was shown a straight red card for the tackle. Neymar could only hit the post from the spot kick, but early on in the second half Messi made it four after Luis Suárez laid back Turan’s pass with his heel. Gary Neville turned to new signing Cheryshev, who came on to jeers from the local fans following his part in Real Madrid’s cup fiasco, and a few minutes later he set up Rodrigo to find the net, only for the strike to be ruled out for offside. With a quarter of an hour to go though Messi won the ball off a demoralized defence to complete his hatr-trick, and Suárez netted another two in the last ten minutes to take his personal tally for the match to four. The defeat puts more pressure on Neville, who has already been strongly criticised following a string of disappointing results in the league.