LIONEL MESSI BECAME the first player to score 400 La Liga goals on Sunday as Barcelona cruised to a 3-0 victory over Eibar at Camp Nou.
After an unusually quiet first 45 minutes, Messi burst into life after the restart and claimed his milestone goal – his 13th in eight appearances against Eibar.
Luis Suarez had given Barca the lead with their only shot on target in the first half, and he doubled his tally six minutes after Messi’s moment in the spotlight with a composed finish from a tight angle.
That was enough to seal a sixth win in a row for Barca in the league, and a ninth successive over Eibar since their promotion to the top flight. They restored their five-point lead at the summit of the table in the process.
Messi took up more of a playmaker role in the opening exchanges and created half-chances that Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba were unable to convert.
Suarez showed them how it should be done in the 19th minute after a slick interchange with Philippe Coutinho opened up the Eibar defence, the Uruguay international finding the bottom corner with unerring accuracy.
Despite falling behind, Eibar continued to push forward and Sergi Enrich should have done better from Ruben Pena’s cross, however the striker headed wide of Marc Andre ter Stegen’s goal.
Coutinho felt he should have had a penalty minutes before the break but his claims were waved away despite Pena’s clumsy tackle inside the area.
After the lacklustre opening salvo, Barca had much more urgency to their game after the break and eight minutes into the second period Messi got his landmark goal.
Having received the ball from Suarez, the five-time Ballon D’Or winner made himself some space before firing low under Asier Riesgo.
Suarez then notched his 14th league goal of the campaign to extend Barcelona’s advantage, before Ter Stegen needed to be alert to keep out Pablo De Blasis’ close-range header.
Ernesto Valverde introduced reported Manchester City target Ousmane Dembele with 18 minutes to play, but despite looking lively he was unable to stretch Barca’s lead on what ultimately turned out to be a comfortable victory despite the league leaders being far from their fluent best.
- Omni
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Chris Farrell is power of strength in the centre – let’s hope he plays as well as the MOTM performance from last year’s six nations (without the injury).
@Con Cussed: he wasn’t injured in that match only in training afterwards
Good to see Schmidt acknowledging that farrell was the right choice, nothing to do with henshaw. He’s dead right too, once ringrose was out go with the guy who’s been training in the position and hungry to get out there. I’m expecting a big game from farrell and I’ve every faith in him to deliver.
@Jim Demps: Same. It helps that he’s feckin huge as well.
@Jim Demps: Where does he acknowledge that Jim?
@Jim Demps: it is to do with Henshaw. Farrell would not be starting were it not for Henshaws injury
@Luke walkee: “ once Garry Ringrose was ruled out it was going to be about trying to keep some little continuity as best we can in a short space of time. You’ve got Chris farrell sitting in the wings massively motivated to do his best. So it’s a great opportunity to get him in and give him a run. “
@Jim Demps: That’s not what he acknowledged. Itching for a row today?
@Eddie Hekenui: It’s not even the right choice if you are using Jim’s criteria
@Eddie Hekenui: no row, genuinely think he made the right choice. Pick the guy who plays in the position. If it doesn’t work out then that’s on farrell.
@Jim Demps: That’s fair enough and I’d agree about picking Farrell ahead of Henshaw at 13 if both fit but Schmidt doesn’t acknowledge Farrell was the right choice, regardless of Henshaw. He says Henshaw might’ve played if it wasn’t for the knock
@Eddie Hekenui: my reading of his quote would be different but fair enough, don’t mind either way and I think the right decision was arrived at. The prospect of facing farrell is far more daunting for Scotland than Addison or henshaw I think.
@Jim Demps: Henshaw is a far better player than Farrell especially defensively
@Eddie Hekenui: surprised he didn’t actually say ‘carrying a bit of a niggle’, which is usually the code for being dropped.
Tom Farrell has put in two stellar seasons and this one he seems to of kicked on again,
he partners the only other fit first team center at provincial level (aki) and has clocked up huge minutes at 13.
injuries to 2 first line centers coupled with ; Chris Farrell (albeit a fantastic option) has played a handful of games since this time last year and a lot of these were not 80 min showings so you’d have to presume he is slightly under cooked.
With all these factors and his impact out west you would really have to question , how will he ever get a cap when the set of circumstances just listed still don’t allow for a look in.
I’m admittedly bias towards Tom Farrell as personally I think he is excellent but it must be hard argue against him having no chance to play his way in.
I am really worried about Henshaw`s injury problems he has not played three consecutive games since connacht won the pro 12.
@Michael Colleary: Reading between the lines it sounds as if Henshaw was dropped rather than unavailable since Schmidt said he could have played and he has form for citing the reason of a players exclusion as injury/fitness/minutes rather than a selection call.
He also suggested in the press conference he wasn’t planning to bring Rob Kearney back in this week but the cohesion was so poor last week he felt he had to, indicating disappointment with Henshaw.
@Rochelle: he literally says Henshaw would have played but he took another knock. You Munster fans are nuts, you believe Joe when it looks good on a Munster player, but he is taking BS when it comes to a Leinster player. If it was all about form C Farrell would have been 3rd choice
@Michael Colleary: That’s just not true. What a weird thing to make up.
@Rochelle: well said.