Barcelona turned on the style in this Sunday lunchtime kick-off to brush Rayo Vallecano aside 6-1 at the Camp Nou, picking up the three poin...
Barcelona turned on the style in this Sunday lunchtime kick-off to brush Rayo Vallecano aside 6-1 at the Camp Nou, picking up the three points they needed to leapfrog Real Madrid and return to the top of La Liga.
In a first-half full of chances, Barça were a little wasteful to tell the truth, only entering the interval with a one-goal lead courtesy of Luis Suarez, but went through the gears in the second-half to claim the scoreline their play deserved.
Lionel Messi was the architect, helping himself to a 12 minute second-half hat-trick and an assist for Suarez’ injury-time second/Barça’s sixth after Gerard Piqué had initially doubled the lead; with Alberto Bueno’s penalty and Dani Alves’ red card the only dampeners on what had been an incredible performance from the hosts.
It was also a record breaking 24th La Liga hat-trick taking him one clear of the Portuguese and setting a new domestic record.
On Saturday, Real Madrid were beaten 1-0 by Athletic Bilbao at San Mames.
Gareth Bale hit the post from 50 yards out but it was the closest Carlo Ancelotti’s team came as an Aritz Aduriz header in the first half was enough to give Athletic a famous victory that could seriously derail Real Madrid’s title charge.
