First Division - Day 4

Leganés 1 - Barcelona 5

Leganés: Serantes; Victor Díaz, Bustinza, Pablo Insúa, Medjani (Rubén Pérez 54’), Diego Rico; Unai López (Szymanowski 61’), Lluis Sastre, Gabriel; Machís (Omar Ramos 61’), Koné. 5-3-2.
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Mascherano, Piqué, Umtiti; Rafinha, Rakitic (Arda Turan 57‘), Iniesta (Denis Suárez 65’), Jordi Alba; Messi Luis Suárez (Paco Alcácer 56‘), Neymar. 3-4-3.

Goals:
0-1. 15. Messi. Connected with Luis Suárez cross to shoot wide of Serantes.
0-2. 31. Luis Suárez. Rolled shot in to net after Messi passed ball across.
0-3. 44. Neymar. Steered shot past keeper after Luis Suárez passed to him.
0-4. 55. Messi (penalty). After Bustinza pulled down Neymar inside the area.
0-5. 64. Rafinha. Won ball in midfield and ran on to fire shot across Serantes.
1-5. 80. Gabriel. Curled free kick over defensive wall wide of Ter Stegen.

Yellow cards: Rakitic 24’, Medjani 27’, Víctor Díaz 39’, Bustinza 54’, Neymar 80’, Omar Ramos 87’.

Barcelona moved back to the top of the table pending Real Madrid’s game on Sunday after they beat newly promoted Leganés 1-5 on Saturday lunchtime. A capacity crowd turned up at the Butarque stadium hoping for a repeat of the surprise win by Alavés against the Catalans last weekend. However Luis Enrique was taking no chances with his line-up this time, and the front three of Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar combined in various ways to tear the local defence apart and score a goal apiece before the break. Ter Stegen did have to keep out Machís at the other end, Umtiti blocking the forward’s follow up, but otherwise Barça dominated, and some ten minutes in to the second half Messi made it four from the penalty spot after Bustinza pulled down Neymar in the area. Serantes had to be at his best to push a shot from Messi on to the post soon afterwards, Paco Alcácer turning in the rebound only to be ruled offside, and a few minutes later Rafinha cut in from the right to score an impressive fifth. With ten minutes to go Gabriel got one back with a well struck free kick to give the home fans something to cheer about, but by then Barça were already thinking about next Wednesday’s clash with Atlético in the Nou Camp.