Barca pounces on Madrid stumble
MADRID — Lionel Messi’s hat-trick saw Barcelona move four points clear of Real Madrid atop the La Liga standings on Saturday and Ousmane Dembele marked his debut with an assist in a 5-0 rout of Espanyol.
Earlier, Madrid paid for the absence of suspended Cristiano Ronaldo and a series of missed chances by Gareth Bale as it was held to a 1-1 draw at home by newly-promoted Levante.
Barca made no such mistake as Ernesto Valverde’s men have now taken maximum points from their opening three games.
Messi led the way with a virtuoso performance, but his opener also needed a huge slice of luck as he was wrongly not flagged offside from Ivan Rakitic’s through ball before wriggling free inside the box and blasting into the top corner.
Barca’s second tally arrived thanks to a counter attack from an Espanyol corner led by Messi and Luis Suarez before Jordi Alba’s low cross was slotted home at the near post by the Argentine.
Espanyol hasn’t won a Catalan derby since 2009, but did have its chances to get back into the game as Pablo Piatti struck the post and then fired inches wide either side of halftime.
Messi put the outcome beyond any doubt by rounding off his hat-trick with another sharp finish from Alba’s cut-back.
Dembele has the unenviable task of replacing the departed Neymar, and Barca’s $125 million man had to wait until 22 minutes from time for his debut as he replaced Gerard Deulofeu to a standing ovation.
Dembele quickly showed why Barca made the 20-yearold the third most expensive player ever as his pinpoint cross was swept home by Suarez to round off the scoring after Gerard Pique had headed home Barca’s fourth.
At Santiago Bernabeu, an uncharacteristically sluggish Madrid squad paid a heavy price for a slow start as it dropped points at home for the second straight game.
A Levante long-throw from the right was allowed to bounce inside Madrid’s sixyard box before Ivi Lopez spun and fired across Kiko Casilla and into the far corner after just 12 minutes.
“We can’t be happy with our performance, above all in the first half,” said Real boss Zinedine Zidane.
“We don’t need to go crazy. We need to have patience and think about the next game, which is just around the corner.”
The host was dealt another blow midway through the first half as Karim Benzema limped off and with no other natural striker on the bench, the fatigued Bale was forced to play as an auxiliary center forward.