Barcelona shook of last weekend’s 1 – 2 defeat to Alaves with a comprehensive 5 – 1 win against newly promoted Leganes on Saturday, September 17.
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The pair exchanged roles on the half hour as Messi’s run through the heart of the home defense left Suarez with a simple finish and after Ter Stegen denied Machis Leganes’ first home goal in the top-flight, Neymar added a third to make the points virtually safe by halftime.
However, the two best goals of the afternoon were still to come as Rafinha cut inside onto his weaker left foot to unleash a rocket into the top corner for Barca’s fifth.
“With three defenders you can suffer complications in defence, facing a three-on-three was a risk but they had to face the same with our strikers”.
Having scored 20 goals without reply in winning their first five competitive games, including Tuesday’s 5-0 Champions League drubbing of Rostov, Bayern leaked their first of the season with just eight minutes gone at Munich’s Allianz Arena. While Atletico Madrid struggled to create openings in their goalless draw here, Luis Enrique’s side mercilessly exploited the space Leganes allowed them and hardly conceded chances either, the home side’s only goal coming from an unstoppable free kick from Gabriel Appelt. Luis Suarez, Neymar and Rafinha were Barca’s other scorers.
Atletico will look to build on the momentum of their first two wins of the season away at Celta Vigo and PSV Eindhoven in the past week when they return to the Vicente Calderon to face high-flying Sporting Gijon on Saturday. “No one expected us to start so brightly, but for us ourselves this is no big surprise, given all the hard work we have put in”, Momo said.
One player who may have beaten Suarez’s tally was Ronaldo.
Leganes, a town of 185,000 people and 11km from Madrid, are playing in La Liga for the first time in their 88-year history.
Leganes joined Real Madrid and Atletico as the third team from the Spanish capital in the top division, following the relegation of Getafe and Rayo Vallecano last season. Possession interests me very little in these games, I don’t care about it.
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They are tied for points with Las Palmas and Eibar. “It’s never a good time to visit Barcelona but now we can go there feeling confident”.
