First Division - Day 8

Barcelona 4 - Deportivo 0

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Mascherano, Piqué, Mathieu; Rafinha (Denis Suárez 68’), Busquets (Messi 55‘), Rakitic, Digne; Arda Turan, Luis Suárez (Paco Alcácer 46‘), Neymar. 3-4-3.
Deportivo: Lux; Laure, Albentosa, Sidnei (Arribas 29’), Fernando Navarro; Celso Borges, Mosquera, Guilherme, Bruno Gama; Emre Çolak (Ryan Babel 56’); Andone. 4-4-1-1.

Goals:
1-0. 21. Rafinha. Picked up Luis Suárez return pass and angled shot under Lux.
2-0. 36. Rafinha. Turned ball back in to net after keeper pushed out Piqué header.
3-0. 43. Luis Suárez. Controlled Neymar pass and turned past Albentosa to score.
4-0. 58. Messi. Ran on to Neymar pass and turned shot inside top corner of net.

Yellow cards: Mosquera 52’, Andone 59’, Messi 90’ / red cards: Laure 65’.

Barcelona stay in fourth place, two points behind joint leaders Atlético and Real Madrid, after they beat Deportivo 4-0 on Saturday afternoon, a morale-boosting win prior to the visit of Manchester City next Wednesday. Rafinha found the net twice before the interval to start things off, the first after combining with Luis Suárez, and the second after Piqué’s header was saved, and Suárez added a third on the stroke of half time after Neymar put him through. Luis Enrique rested the striker at the break though to bring on Paco Alcácer, and soon afterwards Messi came on for his first appearance after an injury lay-off. It only took him three minutes to re-acquaint himself with the goal, latching on to Neymar’s pass to beat Lux. But although Laure was sent off soon afterwards for a foul on Neymar, his side were unable to add to the scoreline, Alcácer in particular missing two or three golden chances to get his first goal for his new club.