FC Barcelona increased the lead at the top of the table to five points with a 4-0 win at Deportivo. Villa, Lionel Messi, Iniesta and Pedro all got into the score sheet on a very wet and cold night. Real Madrid has teh chance to reduce the lead back to two when they face third placed Villareal tommorrow night. Guardiola brought in a number of changes in the line up from what lined up against Bilbao. Xavi started from the bench and Busquets also joined him in the sideline. Iniesta, Keita and Mascherano made up the midfield. The front trio remained unchanged with Pedro, Messi and Villa. Pique and Puyol returned back to form the usual centre defnse partnership with Abidal as left back and Adriano as Right back.
We were building slowly into the game. In the 18th minute Messi chipped a ball into box spotting Iniesta's pass, Iniesta first touch was sublime taking the ball from behind but wasn't sure about where the ball ended. In the 22nd minute we had a huge scare when Adrian missed a golden oppurtunity to take the lead. Puyol's clearance header was somehow diverted into Adrian's path, but that looked like caught the striker by surprise. We were struggling to find our usual passing rhythm and the fact that we have only started three times with this midfield combination was playing a big part. But in the 26th minute Villa opened the scoring for Barca which is his 150th La Liga goal. Once again Messi provided the assist with a delightful pass which put Villa through. In the 34th minute Abidal broke through the left before cutting the ball back to Villa, but Villa's shot was blocked by the defender. In the 38th minute Messi played a delightful ball putting Abidal through , he made no mistake with the finish but was ruled offside. We weren't firing in all cylinders and going into the break, there was that uneasiness of only being one goal ahead. Pedro was struggling throughout the first half.
In the 52nd minute Messi increased the lead to 2-0 with a stunning free kick from outside the box. He curled the ball from outside into the far left corner. That goal cut down the chances of Deportivo getting back into the game and it was only to be seen how much we will get more. In the 70th minute Guardiola surprisingly replaced Villa with Bojan. It was really surprising to see a completely off colour Pedro still on the pitch. In the 80th minute Iniesta scored Barca's thrid with a great left foot strike from the left corner of the box. The very next minute Pedro made it 4-0, when he chipped a beautiful lay off from Messi over the keeper's head. The next minute Pedro and Iniesta were replaced by Thiago and Afellay. Once again Iniesta got a huge amount of applause for that goal he scored in South Africa. In the 88th minute Bojan and Messi played a neat one two before Messi shooting what would have been a certain goal only to be deflected wide by keeper. In the injury time Pique almost gifted a goal to Deportivo but Valdes was in no mood to let go off of the clean sheet.
Onec again with two assist and one goal Lionel Messi was the star of the night. The 4-0 scoreline did gave a picture of our efficiency in front of the box. But we created much less than our usual dominating attack. We got the first goal at the right time and that helped a lot in controlling the rest of the game well. After some unbelievable performance in recent weeks, Pedro was a big disappointment in this match but still managed to cap the night with a goal. Iniesta did really well and ended with a very well taken goal. Puyol did struggle in the first half, but produced some necessary intervention in the second half. Mascherano who got another arre start gave a good account of himself in defensive duties, but in the attacking he is not still into the Barca style. What does this win does is put some unbelievable pressure on Real Madrid when they take on Villareal tomorrow at the Bernebeu.
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