If you are not a member yet, you can sign up here

First Division - Day 7

Rayo Vallecano 0 - Barcelona 2

Rayo: Toño; Tito, Abdoulaye Ba (Manucho 46’), Morcillo, Insúa; Raúl Baena, Trashorras (Jozabed 73‘); Licá (Javier Aquino 46’), Alberto Bueno, Kakuta; Leo Baptistao. 4-2-3-1.
Barcelona: Claudio Bravo; Dani Alves, Piqué, Marc Barta, Mathieu; Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta (Rakitic 68‘); Munir (Pedro 59’), Messi, Neymar (Sandro 80’). 4-3-3.

Goals:
0-1. 35. Messi. Collected high Piqué pass and ran on to hook shot over Toño.
0-2. 36. Neymar. Picked up Munir pass and fired angled shot across keeper.

Yellow cards: Xavi 09’, Abdoulaye 20’, Trashorras 32’, Morcillo 36’, 58’, Aquino 63’, 92’, Piqué 71’/ red cards: Morcillo 58’, Aquino 92’.

Barcelona stay at the top of the table after a 0-2 victory at Rayo Vallecano on Saturday evening. Local coach Paco Jémez took a brave but reckless approach, trying to match the Blaugrana at their own game rather than packing his defence, and Bravo was called upon to keep out Alberto Bueno early on. However Munir and Messi both got free only to be pulled up for borderline offside decisions, and with ten minutes to go to the break Messi ran on to Piqué’s high ball to scoop a shot over Toño for the opener. Just a minute later Munir played on Xavi’s long pass for Neymar to make it two, and before the break Munir got through again on another quick counter-attack only to be brought down by Toño, referee Mateu Lahoz waving away claims for a penalty. True to form, Jémez responded by replacing a defender with another attacker at the interval, and Bravo had to save from Bueno and Baptistao soon after the restart. However with an hour on the clock the locals were left with ten men after Morcillo picked up a second booking, and only some out of character misses by Messi in particular prevented the scoreline from increasing. Rayo ended with nine men when substitute Aquino was also shown a second yellow card, and Barça ran down the clock to record a record seventh clean sheet in a row, albeit that they did let in goals in that midweek Champions League defeat in Paris.