Barcelona’s star forward trio was reduced to one, but Luis Suárez rose to the occasion to fire home a hat-trick and lead his side to a 3-0 victory over Guangzhou Evergrande in the semifinals of the FIFA Club World Cup in Yokohama on Thursday.
Advertisement
The Uruguayan’s goalscoring achievements are well-known to fans across the world, but the treble in Yokohama takes him to a whole new level.
FC Barcelona’s Luis Suarez celebrates after scoring a goal against…
Should Barcelona see off the challenge of Guangzhou, a meeting with either Sanfrecce Hiroshima or River Plate awaits in Sunday’s final.
Munir El-Haddadi squandered Barca’s first two chances, but Suarez broke the deadlock shortly before half time.
Lionel Messi missed the game because of abdominal pain caused by renal colic.
The striker made it 2-0 five minutes after the break when he controlled a pass from Andres Iniesta off his chest and beat Li with a right-footed volley.
Neymar, who has been recovering from a groin injury, remained on the bench.
The Chinese Super League and Asian Champions League winners come into the match in outstanding form, having gone unbeaten in their last 28 matches in all competitions-meaning former World Cup-winning Brazil manager Scolari is yet to taste defeat since taking over in June. “But Barcelona have 25 or 26 players of a similar standard”, he said.
Now that the dust has settled on Sunday’s success in Osaka, Scolari and his coaching staff have considered how best to stop the Spanish and European champions who have only lost six games during the course of 2015.
Advertisement
No European team have failed to reach the final of the tournament since it started in its current form in 2005 and Barcelona are runaway favourites to win the title for a third time.
