Barça came back from an early goal by Piatti for the visitors to bury
Valencia with four goals from Messi and a fifth from Xavi to round off a
fantastic performance that showed the team are still up for the fight
for the league title
Messi put in an extraordinary game to destroy the third placed team
in La Liga and reiterate Barça's faith in their chances of fighting for
the La Liga title. The team showed immense character and commitment when
they came back from a sticky looking situation – 13 points behind the
leaders, trailing 0-1 to a Piatti goal on 9 minutes - to blow away
Valencia.
Led by the four goal hero Messi and with Xavi putting the icing on
the cake with the fifth, Barça could have won by an even wider margin,
such was their superiority on the night.
The win leaves Barça 10 points behind Madrid in second place and will
be a real boost ahead of a difficult game at the Vicente Calderón next
Sunday.
Piatti puts Valencia ahead
A goal within the first 10 minutes from Piatti, who met a Feghouli cross from the right and took advantage of a mix up between Valdes and his defence, put the visitors one up before Barça really
knew what had happened. Their response, however, was devastating with
Pedro and Alexis opening up the flanks and Abidal and Montoya pushing
forward from the full back positions, Barça were soon creating plenty of
danger.
Messi brace leads fightback
After a somewhat cold start, Barça's stars soon began to fire on all
cylinders. Alexis, Cesc, Iniesta and Pedro were all at the top of their
game and Messi was playing at his very best. The equaliser came after a
Pedro cross from the left which Rami mis-cleared and Messi put away.
Five minutes later, a great cross from Abidal allowed Messi to calmly
make it 2-1 and as the team began to play some of their best football,
Alexis and Cesc, with a spectacular bicycle kick that hit the bar, both
came close to making it three before the break.
