Granada: FC Barcelona beat Granada away from home 4-0 and stretched their unbeaten streak in La Liga to eight games. Barcelona dominated the game from start to finish, improved their finishing and the team as a whole played well, helping Barcelona secure 3 more important points away from home.
Granada had a good first 10 minutes or so, when they stopped Barça from getting into a rhythm, Antonio Puertas even forced a huge save out of Marc-André ter Stegen within the opening few minutes
Once Barça settled into their style and dominated possession, it was the well-organized low block from the home team that troubled the visitors and they needed patience to work the ball from side to side. Lionel Messi looked sharp from the very beginning of the game constantly trying to link up with the other forwards and Jordi Alba to try and find spaces.
The much needed break came when Roberto Soldado deflected a Sergio Busquets pass into the path of Antoine Griezmann, who seemed offside but was allowed to receive a pass from the opponent and found the back of the net to give Barça the lead on 12 minutes.
Lionel Messi doubled the lead for his team on 35 minutes when he received a pass from Griezmann, shifted the ball to his left foot and placed a beauty into the top corner beating the goalkeeper Rui Silva, Messi completed his brace after an spectacular freekick which was won by Pedri at the edge of the box. Messi fired it into the bottom corner and Barça had a three-goal lead on 42 minutes
Antoine scored a gorgeous goal with his right foot to make it 4-0 on 63rd minute. With a comfortable lead over their opponents Ronald Koeman decided to rest Messi, who came off with 30 minutes left along with Frenkie De Jong.
Barça played the last 15 minutes against 10 men after Jesús Vallejo was sent off for Granada, although no more goals were scored, and the score persisted.
“We played three games this week, and had three wins. That’s a good thing. We needed more chances to score earlier, now we are more effective in front of the goal,” said the Barcelona coach post his team’s victory.
“We know our situation in the league, and we know that we can’t lose any points. It was important to win the away games this week. The confidence in the team grows. Scoring 4 is great, and we have to continue this.”
