La Liga - Messi magic puts Barca top

Eurosport - Wed, 23 Sep 10:22:00 2009

Lionel Messi turned on a footballing masterclass as champions Barcelona roared back to the top of La Liga with a 4-1 smashing of Racing Santander.

FOOTBALL Lionel Messi Barcelona La Liga - 0

A brace from the Argentina star plus strikes from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gerard Pique saw off Racing at El Sardinero, Oscar Serrano's late strike a mere consolation.

Barca effectively ended the game with a seven-minute blitz midway through the first half.

Messi was chief destroyer, creating one and scoring two as Racing had no answer to arguably the best player on the planet.

Pep Guardiola's line-up showed two changes from the XI that hammered Atletico Madrid at the weekend, with Carles Puyol and Eric Abidal returning to the back four at the expense of Dmytro Chygrynsky and Maxwell.

The attacking triumvirate of Henry, Ibrahimovic and Messi picks itself though, and it was the latter pairing that ripped Racing apart inside 25 minutes.

First Messi played the role of provider as he dinked a perfect inswinging cross to the back post which Ibrahimovic met with a towering header for his fourth goal in as many games.

Within 30 seconds the Swedish superstar was in on goal again, this time with the ball on his right foot, but the far upright came to Racing's rescue.

It was only a brief respite as Messi produced more magic from that terrific left foot moments later, driving at the heart of the defence, dropping the shoulder and bending a fantastic curler into the far corner for 2-0.

Racing were reeling and had no answer to Barca's imagination. Three minutes later four defenders watched helplessly as Ibrahimovic back-heeled the ball to Pique inside the box, the defender unable to miss from six yards.

It was one-way traffic as Guardiola's men continued to manipulate the ball, and only a linesman's flag prevented a fourth before the break as Messi glanced home on the stroke of the interval.

A blot on an otherwise spotless copybook was an injury to Ibrahimovic just a minute into the second period, the former Inter man turning his ankle in pursuit of a long ball.

Messi was still on the pitch though and just after the hour-mark he produced yet another wonder goal, cutting in from the right and dancing past three defenders before unleashing a rocket into the top corner for 4-0.

It was time to rest Messi's legs with 25 minutes remaining, so on came Andres Iniesta.

Racing drew heart from Messi's departure and Serrano gave the home fans something to cheer with a fine 20-yard drive late on.

However victory had already been wrapped up by a seriously impressive Barca outfit.

Sevilla 2-0 Mallorca

Sevilla made it three wins from three with a comfortable 2-0 victory at home to Mallorca in La Liga.

Despite seeing both of his forwards score in Sevilla's last outing at Osasuna, coach Manolo Jimenez opted to restore star striker Luis Fabiano to the starting line-up at Estadio Ramon Sanchez, dropping Fredi Kanoute to the bench.

The change did little to disrupt the Champions League qualifiers though, who needed just 17 minutes to take the lead, Sebastien Squillaci heading home off the underside of the bar after a corner from the right had been nodded back across goal by Julien Escude.

Eight minutes later it was 2-0 as Jesus Navas produced some typically nimble-footed work, combining with Fabiano to wriggle to the by-line before clipping the ball to the back post for Diego Perotti to head home from right underneath the bar.

Bruno China and Alhassane Keita both wasted glorious chances for Mallorca, but Sevilla looked the more likely, Adriano inches away from scoring as Ivan Ramis slid full stretch to clear off the line.

Ramis was later grateful to substitute goalkeeper German Lux who produced a superb one-handed stop to save a certain own goal, but it mattered little as Sevilla moved level with Real Madrid on nine points.

Ben Blackmore / Eurosport

Comment 6 - 25 of 25

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  1. im a man utd fan. i confess messi is the best player on­ earth right now and hes a true credit to barca and la­ liga. i dont think la liga has a strong league, they­ have two quality teams to the four english teams. and­ lets face it when we saw the team alex fergison put out­ to play barca every barca fan in the world was laughing­ and every utd fan crying because we all knew it wasnt­ utds best 11 and for that fergie should be fired. i­ would have liked to see the strongest 11 from each team­ then there would be no arguements. but as it was barca­ won fair and square. still think if we'd have had­ owen instead of park, scholes instead of anderson and­ gary neville instead of o shea utd would have just­ edged it, but never mind, it didnt happen. see you at­ the next final because no matter how much other teams­ spend it will still be another utd barca final again

    From N, on Thu 24 Sep 11:06PM

  2. stavros/ man pipo are just pemistic, at times they find­ it very difficult to face the reality.premiership is­ just entertaining but wit no cream en quality , thats­ why wen ever they find spanish teams at finals they are­ demolished, moses k.kampala uganda.

    From MusaH, on Thu 24 Sep 5:53PM

  3. i thhink its time fo the whole world to believe that­ messi is a wonder boy,he has scored goals from every­ angle,he has scored against many big teams which is­ Ronaldos weak points.one can wonder Naldo scored 3­ premiership goals against the big 3 fo that long he­ spent there.i fo one i think in madrid is just scoring­ because of the favours from the refs weaknesses of the­ defenders.this is going to be the league that is going­ to show his capabilities.moses kampala uganda.

    From MusaH, on Thu 24 Sep 5:45PM

  4. iam so sad about u real because all those stars & u­ need to the help of referee (paying 2 buy the expensive­ players &pay 2 referee 2 win .... what a jok )

    From Jamal f., on Thu 24 Sep 9:13AM

  5. Richard M, as a Real fan, what the hell are you talking­ about they are a good team, but too hard to stop, give­ me a break!

    From jcrombie.snfz, on Wed 23 Sep 4:42PM

  6. I think people praise Messi alot more because they do­ not like Ronaldo's behaviour and arrogance. Messi­ and Ronaldo are both exceptional player no doubt about­ it. But I remember when Ronaldo came third in the­ Ballon D'or you could tell he was really­ disappointed instead of crying about it, he made sure­ that the next year he did everything he could to become­ the winner. So even if people are saying Messi is the­ best this year you best believe Ronaldo is going to­ work his socks off to become number 1 next year.

    From jaytayo, on Wed 23 Sep 2:39PM

  7. Sounds Madrid fans started to realise that Nobody on­ earth can stop Barca!!! they dont know what are they­ talking about they are pretending to be happy because­ of the recent wins thanks to poor teams and poor­ keepers that let ronaldos shots goes in . madrid feels­ now that whatever they will do they will stay inferior­ . i am not a barca fan but i can see this from madrid­ fans comments

    From hasan a, on Wed 23 Sep 11:47AM

  8. i love Barca, i will always be with them, they are the­ wining team cheers, Barca 4 lifeeeeeeeeee By Don Aris

    From sedi, on Wed 23 Sep 10:37AM

  9. HERE WE GO AGAIN WITH EPL FANATICS...WHO FOR SOME­ WHOLLY INEXIPLACABLE REASON ARE ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED­ THAT WIGAN ARE BETTER THAN SANTADER AND THAT EVERTON­ ARE BETTER THAN VALENCIA...JUST FACE THE TRUTH,ALL TOP­ EUROPEAN LEAGUES HAVE THEIR TOP TEAMS(CHELSEA AND MAN U­ IN ENGLAND AND REAL MADRID AND BARCA IN SPAIN)AND THEIR­ WEAK TEAMS LIKE XEREZ OR OSASUNA AND PORTSMOUTH OR­ HULL...AND DO NOT FORGET THAT BARCA DEMOLISHED THE­ ENGLISH CHAMPIONS LAST SEASON WITH HALF ITS­ STRENGTH...OF COURSE YOU REALISE AT THIS STAGE THAT­ FACTS ARE STUBBORN THINGS...

    From stavros h, on Wed 23 Sep 10:31AM
  10. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Come on......Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in­ the world any day....Messi is nowhere near him...Be it­ skill or shot making.....Maybe Messi's passing is a­ little better than ROnaldo's...Thats it.....

    From Abhishek, on Wed 23 Sep 10:27AM
  11. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Ronaldo is King, He has taken Spain by storm, marry me­ please-6'3'' dark and pretty, with a wiff­ of feminity. expensive and huge ball of ball of monies,­ messi no no no

    From oluwaseun a, on Wed 23 Sep 9:47AM

  12. Messi is the most consistent best player in the world i­ have ever seen! The Little nuisance cant just stop­ scoring!

    From Eng Anthony Kariuki, on Wed 23 Sep 9:14AM

  13. There's only one weak point in Barca: Abidal. As­ soon as Guardiola finds out that Maxwell is much­ better, there's no chance for anybody.

    From Giovanni T, on Wed 23 Sep 8:59AM

  14. Barca is playing pleasant football and its exciting to­ be in the winning team. But the team should watch the­ loss of concentration that makes us conceed needless­ goals. The trick is to score as much and conceed as­ little as possible. Barca 4 eva.

    From adebiolofin, on Wed 23 Sep 6:38AM

  15. I am a barca fan and can say that Cruyff is right to­ complain against the mistakes barca are making. OK - we­ beat Santander easily but there are certain moments­ (One-two Alves mistakes, the mistake on the Santander­ goal situation), etc. which if not taken out of barca­ game in the near future - will experience big problems­ against better structured team with strong defence. OK­ our attack can put 2-3 goals per game, but we have to­ defend better and make less mistakes - especially in­ games where we have early lead with 3-4 goals - fresh­ examples we have from last two games. It's just the­ begining of the season, so hope those mistakes will be­ cleared soon. Hope Ibra is not seriously injured

    From Vesso D, on Wed 23 Sep 6:06AM

  16. Stand up 4 the champion!!!
    Barca 4 life,the best club­ in the whole wide world.
    Stand up!

    From olaniyi, on Wed 23 Sep 4:36AM

  17. What about Ibrahimovic?
    Or Ibracadabra as you may­ prefer? ;D

    From Pedro, on Wed 23 Sep 2:17AM

  18. messi the best

    From dercute, on Wed 23 Sep 1:32AM

  19. This is becoming boring news. Messi is playing great­ game in game out and Barca is winning game in game­ out..

    From Half A Brain, on Wed 23 Sep 12:32AM

  20. Damn, I hate Barca, they are so good, they are too hard­ to stop.

    From chechenr, on Wed 23 Sep 12:06AM
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