Hat-trick from the sextuple Ballon dÒr winner plus one from Griezmann and a remarkable backheel from Suárez see off the islanders in spectacular fashion
Sports Livestream ⚽ JOIN NOW for FREE
Instant access to the BT Sport, Sky Sports and Eurosport
C Barcelona are on top of the league for another week following a simply spectacular game of football at Camp Nou that saw Leo Messi score three of the five goals in a performance that more than proved why he was the worthy winner of a sixth golden sphere on Monday night.
But the whole team contributed to a night to remember. Antoine Griezmann opened the scoring, and Luis Suárez also got on the scoresheet with one of the boldest goals we’ll see this season.
There’s no doubt about it. Barça have put their bumpy period behind them and are now hitting top form. With the machine running this smoothly, they are going to be hard indeed to beat.
Goals aplenty
The opener came from a Ter Stegen assist (his second of the season!). Dani Rodriguez had just missed a sitter for Mallorca and the German keeper took the goal kick quickly, having spotted Griezmann free on the halfway line. The Frenchman charged forth and beat the keeper with a composed finish to start the goal-fest at Camp Nou.
Next up, a move involving almost every blaugrana player led to Messi receiving the ball outside the area in a fairly harmless position. But no position is harmless when Messi has the ball. Where any normal player would hit and hope, the six-time Ballon d’Or winner picked his spot. Top left corner. Wham!
Only a quarter of an hour had gone and if this had been boxing, the fight would have been stopped there and then. Not even Ante Budimir’s stunning strike to get the visitors off the mark was any real cause for concern.
Mallorca’s teeny moment of hope lasted for mere seconds. Moments later, Messi was on the edge of the area and swerved a curveball just inside the post to put Barça back into a 2-goal lead. Messi scores these goals with such calm that it’s as if someone is simply pressing a button on a PlayStation controller. But no. This is for real.
