Barcelona v Las Palmas

Speaking in November, club president Josep Bartomeu said he was “convinced” Messi would end his career at Barca.

Luis Suarez’s 100th Barca goal and Neymar’s penalty cancelled out Athletic’s 2-1 first leg lead, but Enric Saborit’s header six minutes into the second-half had the tie headed for extra time. He scored against every other team he’d faced in La Liga – all 34 of them – but Las Palmas were the remaining holdout.

Barcelona’s next outing will be the Copa del Rey match against Real Sociedad, while Las Palmas host Deporivo La Coruna in La Liga.

Luis Suarez opened the scoring as the champions produced a dominant performance that could have seen them out of sight by half-time, were it not for rare display of poor finishing.

Both players have struggled to have an influence on the team, Rakitic more so in recent weeks rather than Turan who has had fierce competition to deal with since he arrived at the Nou Camp.

“The media always make things into a soap opera and everything gets misinterpreted”, noted the Uruguayan, who is the joint top scorer in La Liga along with Messi. Barcelona is third in the standings, one point behind Sevilla and five behind Real Madrid, which has a game in hand.

This is the ninth straight season in which the 29-year-old Messi has scored at least one free kick goal.

Expect Barca to not hold back when they face UD Las Palmas on January 14 so don’t miss a single second of this thrilling match!

Suarez was handed a break for the final 20 minutes as he was replaced by Paco Alcacer and the former Valencia captain teed up Vidal to slot home from just inside the area for the fifth 10 minutes from time. “We are calm despite what has been said”.

“Provided we dominate the game and generate opportunities, a good result will come our way”, said Enrique.

The Catalans started the match by pressing high up the pitch and putting tremendous amounts of pressure on the Las Palmas defence. We pressed well throughout the game and it was only by a miracle that we did not have the game completely won before half-time.