First Division - Day 35

Villarreal 1 - Barcelona 4

Villarreal: Diego López; Ángel, Gonzalo, Godín, Capdevila; Cani (Llorente 46'), Bruno, Ibagaza (Marcos Senna 46'), Cazorla; Nilmar, Rossi (David Fuster 82'). 4-4-2.
Barcelona: Víctor Valdés; Dani Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Maxwell; Xavi, Busquets (Touré Yaya 80'), Keita; Messi (Jeffren 89'), Bojan (Ibrahimovic 84'), Pedro. 4-3-3.

Goals:
0-1. 19. Messi. Controlled Xavi pass and struck angled shot in off Godín.
0-2. 34. Xavi. Curled free kick over defensive wall inside Diego López's post.
0-3. 42. Bojan. Picked up Xavi pass to round Gonzalo and shoot past keeper.
1-3. 67. Llorente. Ran on to Nilmar through ball and poked shot past Valdés.
1-4. 88. Messi. Connected with Dani Alves cross to chip shot over keeper.

Yellow cards: Gonzalo 31', Capdevila 39', Keita 52', Godín 55', Busquets 62', Puyol 72', Llorente 80'.

Any doubts about Barcelona's capacity to recover from their Champions League defeat were dissipated when they beat Villarreal 1-4 on Saturday evening. Things may have been different had Nilmar converted a couple of easy chances early on, but in the twentieth minute Bojan and Xavi combined to set up Messi to score. A quarter of an hour later Xavi made it two with a well struck free kick, and before the half-time whistle Bojan added a third after leaving Gonzalo for dead before beating Diego López.

Garrido made two changes at the break, and midway through the second half Llorente latched on to Nilmar's through ball to pull one back. But with the game coming to an end a quick passing move ended with Messi notching up his second of the night to take his side four points clear of Real Madrid pending their game tomorrow.