Fermin Lopez, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski all scored twice as Barcelona maintained their unbeaten begin to the season in LaLiga with a crushing 6-0 win over Valencia.
Sunday’s recreation was performed on the 6,000-capacity Estadi Johan Cruyff, resulting from delays in finalising the renovation of Camp Nou.
However the Blaugrana checked out house in these environment as they obtained again to profitable methods following a 1-1 draw with Rayo Vallecano previous to the worldwide break.
Jules Kounde and Ferran Torres missed obvious possibilities to place Barca forward contained in the opening 11 minutes, whereas Marcus Rashford additionally labored Julen Agirrezabala.
However Lopez made the breakthrough within the twenty ninth minute, beating Agirrezabala with a cultured, side-footed end after taking in Torres’ flick.
Barca made a equally fast begin to the second half and struck twice in 11 minutes after the restart. First, Rashford’s teasing left-wing cross was tucked in by half-time substitute Raphinha, then Lopez discovered the bottom-left nook with a 25-yard drive.
Raphinha obtained his brace with one other neat end within the 66th minute after Jose Gaya solely half-cleared a Lopez cross, earlier than Lewandowski made it 5-0 with a strong end off the underside of the crossbar with 14 minutes to play.
There was nonetheless time for Lewandowski to get the third brace of the sport, too, as he lobbed Agirrezabala with the surface of his boot after being fed by 18-year-old substitute Marc Bernal.
Whereas Barca are two factors adrift of leaders Actual Madrid, who’ve an ideal file after 4 video games of the marketing campaign, Valencia are fifteenth with 4 factors.
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Barca have been with out Lamine Yamal for Sunday’s recreation, so it was shocking to see each Raphinha and Lewandowski ignored of Hansi Flick’s beginning lineup, even after they only returned from worldwide obligation.
Whereas Lopez shone from the beginning, netting twice from 5 photographs with 4 of his makes an attempt coming from inside the realm (a game-high determine), Raphinha and Lewandowski made their mark off the bench.
It was the primary time within the twenty first century that Barca had two substitutes rating a number of targets in the identical recreation in LaLiga, whereas Raphinha had by no means beforehand netted twice as an alternative in his profession in Europe’s high 5 leagues.
The Blaugrana at the moment are unbeaten of their final 11 matches towards Valencia in LaLiga (9 wins, two attracts), their second-best run towards Los Che within the competitors, after a streak of 13 between 2007 and 2013 (9 wins, 4 attracts).
