Two fine finishes inside 12 minutes from Suarez put Barca in control before Messi rounded off a fine team move for Barca’s third.
Advertisement
Luis Suarez scored four and Lionel Messi grabbed a hat-trick as the Catalan side all-but booked their place in the final while cranking up the heat on Neville.
It was Neymar that stepped forward for the spot kick, but the Brazilian rattled the post. The second leg is next week at Mestalla Stadium in Valencia. Of course, Gary Neville, Valencia’s English manager, will probably not have much to say anyway. If you’re a football fan, we guarantee nothing else will top this today.
The former Manchester United right-back underlined that it was one of his worst experiences in football and admitted that the fans did not deserve it. “We apologise to our fans for one of the worst days and one of the worst results in our history. We made bad mistakes during the entire match”.
Barcelona’s ninth win in a row took the team’s unbeaten streak in all competitions to 27 games. After defeating Atletico Madrid 2-1 in league play this past weekend and gaining three points over Diego Simeone, Barcelona is going through their best time of this season.
Neymar dispossessed Andre Gomes inside the Valencia half before playing through Suarez, who fired a low shot past Mathew Ryan in the Valencia goal. Second goal was a result of handsome one-two game between the striker and Aleix Vidal, who sent a flawless past to his teammate.
Messi was left with the simple task of slotting in his first of the evening from close range after great work by Andres Iniesta and Suarez just before the half-hour mark.
Suarez and Messi spent the final part of the match trying to set up Neymar, but he wasn’t able to find the target. We need to win a league game.
Valencia thought they had pulled a goal back in the 67th minute, but Rodrigo’s effort was ruled out for offside after a pass from debutant Denis Cheryshev, whose appearance while ineligible to play in an earlier round for Real Madrid got them eliminated.
Advertisement
Despite winning just five of their 11 games before Neville’s arrival, Valencia were still in contention to return to the Champions League – that dream appears to be dying a death, along with Neville’s reputation.
