It's hard to credit it but Sun. night's match against Valencia was Lionel Messi's 200th league appearance. It does not seem such a long time ago that he used to be a young 17-year-old making occasional first team appearances and showing what a gift he was going to be; but no-one thought that his talent was this huge.
Valencia started the weekend 9 points behind Barcelona, who themselves were 10 points behind Real Madrid. But Real Madrid beat Racing Santander 4-0 on Saturday and so Sunday's match saw Barcelona 13 points behind their arch-rival.
It took a little while for the Barcelona players to truly get into the match and the Nou Camp was silenced when Piazzi opened the scoring from Valencia in the 8th minute. Nevertheless that seemed to focus the players ' minds and they began to put together some productive soccer for the Catalans.
Valencia are usually a worthwhile contestant and a victory against them can't ever be taken lightly. Lionel Messi scored Bar?a's 1st in the 21st minute to equalise and put Barcelona into the league just five minutes later.?Barcelona was leading Valencia 2 goals to 1 at the break and when they came on again came close to making it 3 goals from some excellent play by Cesc, who got past 4 Valencia defenders only to hit the post.
It wasn't until the 75th minute that Messi scored his 3rd goal of the night and then almost 10 minutes later he made it his 4th. While it seemed like that was all to be done on the night, Xavi scored a goal of his very own in the last minute for a last score of 5-1 to Barcelona. Nonetheless neither Barcelona nor Valencia has any realistic chance of closing the gap and it is a dead certainty that Madrid will take the la liga this year.
Valencia started the weekend 9 points behind Barcelona, who themselves were 10 points behind Real Madrid. But Real Madrid beat Racing Santander 4-0 on Saturday and so Sunday's match saw Barcelona 13 points behind their arch-rival.
It took a little while for the Barcelona players to truly get into the match and the Nou Camp was silenced when Piazzi opened the scoring from Valencia in the 8th minute. Nevertheless that seemed to focus the players ' minds and they began to put together some productive soccer for the Catalans.
Valencia are usually a worthwhile contestant and a victory against them can't ever be taken lightly. Lionel Messi scored Bar?a's 1st in the 21st minute to equalise and put Barcelona into the league just five minutes later.?Barcelona was leading Valencia 2 goals to 1 at the break and when they came on again came close to making it 3 goals from some excellent play by Cesc, who got past 4 Valencia defenders only to hit the post.
It wasn't until the 75th minute that Messi scored his 3rd goal of the night and then almost 10 minutes later he made it his 4th. While it seemed like that was all to be done on the night, Xavi scored a goal of his very own in the last minute for a last score of 5-1 to Barcelona. Nonetheless neither Barcelona nor Valencia has any realistic chance of closing the gap and it is a dead certainty that Madrid will take the la liga this year.
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Read our Barcelona v Valencia match report at Simply Barcelona Tickets. You can book Barcelona tickets online for all remaining matches at the Nou Camp this season.
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