Barca win in Las Palmas

All of the goals came within the first 40 minutes as first Andres Iniesta and Jordi Alba combined to set up Luis Suarez for Barca’s opening goal after just 6 minutes, reports Xinhua.

Barcelona’s front three of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar are the “best friends in the world”, according to their teammate Ivan Rakitic, whose team have taken the opposite stance to Cristiano Ronaldo’s position on camaraderie in football.

But with Barca shaky in defence, Las Palmas equalised through Willian Jose after Jonathan Vieira’s clever flick.

Las Palmas and Barcelona will play their twenty-fifth game of the La Liga season at the Estadio de Gran Canaria on Saturday, 20th February.

Barca’s closest challengers Atletico Madrid can cut the gap when they host Villarreal, whilst third-placed Real Madrid, who are now 10 points adrift of Barca, travel to Malaga on Sunday.

Darmstadt forward Sandro Wagner, the only Munich-born player on the pitch, shocked his former side by putting away the visitors’ first real chance in the 26th minute.

Barcelona striker Luis Suarez admitted the European champions are feeling the effects of their hectic schedule across six competitions this season ahead of their return to Champions League action against Arsenal on Wednesday (HK time).

“In order to win titles, you have to pull out games like these”, Suarez said.

“Playing every two days, the only thing we can ask is that players keep on competing”. “It is not an excuse, but we know we have played a lot of games in the last month and a half”.

Las Palmas haven’t defeated Barcelona in a La Liga game since 1986 (3-0 at the Insular), meeting Barca nine times in the top flight since then (D4 L5).

But Las Palmas was not deterred and leveled when Jose received Jonthan Viera’s deft pass with the back of his heel, leaving him all alone to size up goalkeeper Claudio Bravo and slot the ball under his outstretched leg.

On any other day, you’d expect Suarez to bury at least one of those chances.

The Catalans managed a narrow 2-1 win over Las Palmas in their latest match on Saturday.

The trio scored 122 goals between them last season as Barcelona won La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League. It’s interesting how I feel and hear more love and admiration for Suarez than I do for Messi.