Five goals in the first half and one more in the second send Barça storming to a spectacular victory.
FC Barcelona produced a masterclass in footballing excellence on Tuesday night at the Camp Nou . With five goals in the first half, the game was done and dusted with 45 minutes left to play. Messi (2), Suárez (2), Neymar andXavi all found the target as Barça rocked their way to a crowd-pleasing 6-0 rout.
Messi ‘a la Panenka’
Barça blitzed Getafe right from the start, with Alves coming close twice in the opening moves before Luis Suárez was brought down in the 9th minute byArroyo on the edge of the area. The referee didn’t think twice about pointing to the spot, Leo Messi stepped up to take it, and the Argentinian cheekily fooled visiting keeper Guaita with a ‘Panenka’ style penalty. A flash of sheer genius and the Catalans were off to the perfect start.
Getafe almost pulled level when Fredy looked to have caught Bravo off his line, but the Chilean managed to get back in the nick of time to prevent the ball from dropping into the top right corner. But that proved to be a minor blip in an incredible first half display from Barça. The floodgates were about to open…
Goal! Goal! Goal! Goal!
Luis Suárez made it two after 25 minutes. The Uruguayan met a high Messi cross from the right and thumped a volley home in spectacular fashion. And the crowd was still busy celebrating when the goalscorer turned goal provider as he played Neymar through from the left and the Brazilian weaved his way through the Getafe defence before right-footing the ball past Guaita. The MSN ‘trident’ made it to 100 goals between them this season, and all three had already scored in this game! What’s more, with 47 goals Neymar had equalled Ronaldo as the highest scoring Brazilian in club history.
But the rollercoaster ride was by no means over. On the half hour Xavi added his name to the scoresheet with yet another piece of footballing brilliance –a terrific strike from the edge of the area to make it 4-0. And there was more to come from the Catalan midfielder as he laid up Suárez to send goal number five flying home on 40 minutes – Barcelona’s 150th official goal of the season.
Messi again
Half-time at last gave the Camp Nou some time to digest what was going on, but no sooner had the game got back under way than the ball was in the back of the Getafe net again. Leo Messi, unfazed by the fact that he was surrounded by defenders, placed an impeccable strike past Guaita and it was six-nil and that was league goal number 38 for the Barça striker.
It was clearly game over by this stage. Getafe were battling against the impossible and Barça were working on auto-pilot. For the rest of the second half, the chances continued to flow for Messi, Suárez and Neymar and it looked inevitable that the seventh goal was going to come at some stage. But Getafe managed to hang on, and almost grabbed a consolation goal when Fredy sent the ball bobbling onto the post.
Five points clear
A magical night at the Camp Nou had conjured up six absolutely stunning goals and a performance, especially in the first half, that was close to perfection. It leaves Barça five points clear at the top of the table, pending what Real Madrid achieve against Almería on Wednesday, and with just four games to go, the league title is now almost within touching distance.
