Messi and Suarez help Barcelona trounce Eibar
barcelona — Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez scored their 15th league goals of the season as Barcelona stayed on the heels of La Liga leaders Real Madrid by winning 4-0 at Eibar on Sunday although the win was marred by an injury to key midfielder Sergio Busquets.
Substitute Denis Suarez scored his first goal for Barca, firing the visitors into the lead from the edge of the area in the 31st minute after replacing Busquets, who had been carried off on a stretcher with strained ankle ligaments following a crunching tackle by Eibar’s Gonzalo Escalante.
Messi stretched Barca’s lead by finishing off a brilliant move with Luis Suarez in the 50th minute and the Uruguayan joined his close friend and strike partner on 15 league goals by robbing an Eibar defender and finishing inside the near post in the 68th. Neymar added an extra shine to the victory by netting in the 91st minute, scoring his first goal for Barca from open play since October.
“We leave here with one piece of bad news which is Busquets’s injury although it’s not as serious as we thought,” Barca coach Luis Enrique told reporters after a fourth straight win in all competitions. “We have very good players in midfield who we can rely on. After everything I feel satisfied with what I saw on the pitch. We said we needed to get better results and that’s what we’re doing, and that’s giving us more confidence, but we’re still far from the level we want to be at.”
Barca are third on 41 points, two behind Real, who beat Malaga 2-1 on Saturday and have a game in hand. Sevilla are second on 42 points
We leave here with one piece of bad news which is Busquets’s injury although it’s not as serious as we thought Enrique, Barca coach
after following last week’s recovery against Real by staging another stirring comeback to win 4-3 at Osasuna earlier on Sunday, while Atletico Madrid faltered again despite a brilliant strike from Antoine Griezmann earning them a 2-2 draw at Athletic Bilbao. Late goals from Franco Vazquez and Pablo Sarabia secured the points for Sevilla after their captain Vicente Iborra had scored for both sides in an action-packed clash between teams from opposite ends of the table. —