First Division - Day 24

Barcelona 6 - Celta 1

Barcelona: Bravo; Dani Alves (Aleix Vidal 61‘), Piqué, Mascherano, Jordi Alba; Sergi Roberto (Rakitic 61‘), Busquets, Iniesta (Arda Turan 77‘); Messi, Luis Suárez, Neymar. 4-3-3.
Celta: Sergio Alvarez; Hugo Mallo, Jonny, Cabral, Planas; Daniel Wass (Pape Cheikh 82‘), Radoja, Pablo Hernández (Marcelo Díaz 63‘); Beauvue, Guidetti (Drazic 76‘), Josep Señé. 4-3-3.

Goals:
1-0. 28. Messi. Curled free kick over defensive wall and in to top corner of net.
1-1. 39. Guidetti (penalty). After Jordi Alba tripped Guidetti inside the area.
2-1. 59. Luis Suárez. First time volley past Alvarez from chipped Messi pass.
3-1. 75. Luis Suárez. Poked ball over line after Neymar crossed from left of goal.
4-1. 81. Luis Suárez. Fired shot past keeper after Messi passed from penalty kick.
5-1. 84. Rakitic. Ran on to Luis Suárez pass and lifted shot over head of keeper.
6-1. 90. Neymar. Controlled long Luis Suárez centre and lifted shot past Alvarez.

Yellow cards: Cabral 11’, Planas 26’, Hugo Mallo 43’, Josep Señé 75’.

Barcelona stay three points clear at the top of the table after an impressive 6-1 win over a depleted Celta on Sunday evening. Most of the goals though didn’t come until late on, the two teams going in level at half time after a Guidetti penalty cancelled out a house-special Messi free kick. Luis Suárez hit the post just a minute or so after the restart though, and Sergio Alvarez had to save from Iniesta before Messi lifted the ball through for Suárez to restore the lead. Guidetti and Wass went close after that though, and it was not until a quarter of an hour from the end that Suárez made it three after Messi and Neymar combined to set him up. With ten minutes to go though Jonny brought Messi down in the area, and although Messi opted to take the spot kick, he cheekily passed the ball across for Suárez to complete a hat-trick. After that Celta’s challenge ended, and Rakitic and Neymar added two more, both from Suárez assists.