After another convincing victory to extend their unbeaten run to 36 games, Barcelona are delighted to head into a mini ‘holiday’ with three more points safely under their belts and their position at the top of La Liga looking more impregnable than ever.
Following this routine 4-0 victory over hard-working but outclassed Eibar, courtesy of another brace from Lionel Messi along with strikes from Munir El Haddadi and Luis Suarez, the Catalan giants will now not play again until Saturday’s home meeting with Getafe.
And that is a decidedly unusual state of affairs, because diverse commitments in La Liga, the Champions League, the Copa del Rey and December’s Club World Cup mean that Barca haven’t enjoyed a fixture-free midweek since November.
Coach Luis Enrique has opted to give his players two days off tomorrow and Wednesday and he is delighted with the state of his team, saying: “We are where we want to be thanks to our hard work. Nobody has gifted anything to us.
“Now we’re approaching the final straight and we will play for three titles. The team is developing well and we’re feeling really good.”
Enrique was also gushing in his assessment of Barca’s performance in their latest victory, enthusing: “The other day (Thursday’s 5-1 win over Rayo Vallecano) I thought we played a spectacular game and today was even better.
“We were very solid against a tough team and we overcame their pressure to our positional play, our possession, our organisation and the play of our forwards when we got the ball behind their defence.”
The opener didn’t take long to arrive in cold and soggy Eibar, with Messi and Suarez combining brilliantly down the right wing to set up an easy finish for Munir from close range.
Munir had been selected in place of the suspended Neymar, who had already taken advantage of his team’s upcoming free midweek by flying to his native Brazil for his sister’s birthday party.
And the 20-year-old wasted a chance to tee up the second by running onto another precise Messi throughball but putting too much power on his attempted square pass for the unmarked Suarez.
The hosts rallied to enjoy their best spell of the game as the interval approached, with Barca occasionally looking ponderous in defence to give the hosts some cause for encouragement.
Although there were no real chances for Eibar, Barca did survive a scare when Javier Mascherano’s loose clearance resulted in Ander Capa’s cross deflecting off Sergio Busquets and flying just wide.
However, Barca then grabbed the all-important second goal when a mistake by Capa created a three on three break, but Messi didn’t need anyone else as he ran to the edge of the box before drilling a low shot into the bottom corner.
The second half offered little to write home about as the rain poured down in Eibar’s tiny Ipurua stadium, with Barca largely comfortable in defence but rarely looking like adding to the scoring.
But Messi did make it three with 15 minutes remaining, winning a penalty by twisting and turning to deliver a low cross which was blocked by the diving Ivan Ramis’ outstretched arm.
There was little doubt about the penalty, and Messi made light of the Blaugrana’s problems from the spot this season – having missed nine of 18 before Sunday – by chipping the ball down the middle while home keeper Asier Riesgo dived helplessly to his left.
And Suarez then made it four with the goal of the game, running onto Sergi Roberto’s pass to nutmeg one defender, hold off another and then rifle a low strike into the bottom left corner, giving the scoreline a somewhat flattering look.
