Barcelona eased to a crushing 8-0 victory over Cordoba, maintaining their La Liga title challenge and relegating the Andalusian club after a one-year stint in the top flight.
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The in-form visiting team had the points in the bag after a pair of quick-fire strikes shortly before half-time through Luis Suarez and Ivan Rakitic.
And they ran riot in the second period, with Lionel Messi netting his 50th goal of the season – and his team’s 100th in La Liga – before Suarez added another and Gerard Pique made it five.
Infographic: Passes Barcelona and Cordoba during today’s game #fcblive [via @barzaboy] pic.twitter.com/ui3mDdVUxQ
— barcastuff (@barcastuff) May 2, 2015
A second for Messi, Neymar’s penalty and Suarez’s first Barca hat-trick completed the rout, allowing Luis Enrique’s team to head into Wednesday’s tumultuous Champions League semi-final clash with Bayern Munich full of confidence.
Playing against a struggling team which had failed to win since January, it was no surprise to see Barca immediately dominating and they could have bagged an early opener when Dani Alves advanced to find Neymar, who volleyed over the top from close range.
Cordoba – who had to win to avoid relegation – briefly rallied and had half-chances through Jose Angel Crespo and Florin Andone, and for a while Barca struggled to penetrate the home team defence.
VIDEO | Highlights of Cordoba-Barcelona 0-8 https://t.co/9p6CgszuIr [via @LaLiga]
— MESSISTATS (@MessiStats) May 2, 2015
Neymar again came close with a low effort against the woodwork, but Barca did break the deadlock three minutes before the break when Messi delivered another assist by clipping a pass into the stride of Rakitic, who controlled well before crashing home his first league goal since February.
And any hopes of a Cordoba fightback were extinguished on the stroke of half-time as Andres Iniesta was credited with his first assist of the league season by lofting a neat pass into the stride of Suarez for a close-range finish.
Cordoba’s resistance was broken, especially when Barca added their third goal within seconds of the restart as Alves advanced to deliver a perfect cross for Messi to head home from inside the penalty area.
And Alves was again the creator less than ten minutes later, crossing for Suarez to make it 4-0 by heading home via the far post for his seventh goal in his last six outings.
With the game well won, Enrique was able to ring the changes by introducing Xavi and Jeremy Mathieu for Iniesta and Javier Mascherano, and the remainder of the game was simply a question of how many more the rampant league leaders would score.
And the next goal soon arrived as Pique met Rakitic’s corner with a powerful downward header from 12 yards to become the first Barca defender to score five league goals in a season for two decades.
Three goals in the last 10 minutes completed the rout, firstly with Messi pouncing on a loose ball inside the six-yard box to stab home his 40th league goal of the season – overtaking Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the scoring charts.
Neymar then finally got his name on the scoresheet by converting a penalty for number seven, before Suarez wrapped things up with his hat-trick goal from close range.
