Barça 3-1 Leganés: M3SSI

Messi is love, Messi is life.

Barcelona are back to winning ways in La Liga thanks to a 3-1 victory over Leganés on Saturday night at Camp Nou. The Blaugrana played a great first half and suffered a bit in the second against a tricky side, but they managed to get three points thanks to a Lionel Messi hat-trick and continue their run to the title.

FIRST HALF

Leganés could have proven to be a tough opponent, but Barça made sure they wouldn’t be. The Blaugrana were in complete control from the first second of the match, controlling possession and not allowing the visitors to have any counter-attacking chances. Barça were quite good on the offensive end as well, constantly creating opportunities with good passing and movement.

The goals took a while to come, but they did thanks to the best player in the world: Lionel Messi opened the scoring with a gorgeous free-kick, and five minutes later he doubled his team’s lead thanks to a great Philippe Coutinho assist. Barça cruised after scoring two goals, and dropped a little bit of their intensity but not enough to give them issues.

At halftime, a solid performance from the leaders had them up two at the half and looking ready to get the win.

SECOND HALF

Barça were so comfortable in the first half that they became too comfortable in the second, and paid for it when Nabil El Zhar was found all alone inside the box and gave Leganés a chance to equalize with 25 minutes left. The visitors certainly were hungry for the equalizer and knew they had nothing to lose, so they made attacking substitutions and really went for it.

But Barça have Lionel Messi, and the Argentine completed his hat-trick with five mintues to go to ensure the victory for the home team. This wasn’t the most exciting performance, the second half was poor, but Barça won anyway. Up next, Roma at the Olimpico! That should be fun.

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Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Semedo, Piqué, Vermaelen, Roberto (Alba); Dembélé, Rakitic, Gomes, Coutinho (Iniesta); Messi, Suárez

Goals: Messi (27’, 32’, 87’)

Leganés: Cuéllar; Zaldúa, Bustinza, Siovas, Raúl; Pérez (Guerrero), Gabriel; El Zhar, Eraso (Darko), Omar; Amrabat (Beauvue)

Goal: El Zhar (69’)

Source: barcablaugranes.com