Barcelona cruise to win over Real Sociedad

Luis Suarez hit a brace and set up a double for Lionel Messi in his first start after injury as Barcelona crushed AS Roma 6-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday.

“When the market opens we’ll assess what state the team is in”, said Luis Enrique.

The first two goals came from Dani Alves (difficult to imagine his form over the last 18 months compared to the year before that), twice setting Neymar and Suarez up for goals from the right wing. Messi scored his second in the 60th minute followed by Adriano’s goal in the 77th minute to take the score to 6-0 after his country-mate Neymar Jr. missed the penalty chance.

Barcelona stayed on the goal trail as a 4-0 win over Real Sociedad kept them in the driving seat at the top of the Primera Division.

“You start a game with a new coach and different nuances to your game against quality opponents, and it allows you to best assess what you worked on during the global break”.

“I can’t blame the players for anything, aside from not using the ball better and scoring a few goals in the opening 45”. It is not easy to keep pressuring but this is what we are good at as a group and it is the key.

Barcelona could go seven points clear in the title race before their rivals, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid, kick off their respective matches.

“Messi has fitted back into the side, I saw Suarez pressuring after 92 minutes, Neymar pressuring and it is the same as we have been playing before”.

Neymar added to TV3: “I’m very happy for everything we’re doing”. But nobody wins the league in December.

For much of the second half, Neymar and Suarez appeared more concerned with getting Messi his first La Liga goal since September 20, something the Blaugrana coach said in his postgame news conference was not an issue for him once the primary objective of winning the match was achieved first. Barcelona displayed great tactics in the park and their success is due to the teamwork. We will all drop points at some point between here and the end of the season. We needed a miracle to win tonight and we didn’t get one.

“I don’t feel like we are at our best yet, I think we played better last season, although we are certainly playing at a very high level, and that’s important to me”, he said.

“Tonight’s result is down to Barcelona’s performance and this just goes to show how well we did in the game in Rome”.