Barcelona blitzed Osasuna with four goals in 10 second-half minutes to temporarily move three points clear at the top of La Liga with a 7-1 victory at the Camp Nou.
Luis Enrique rested several of his regular starters, including Luis Suárez, Andrés Iniesta and Jordi Alba – an understandable move following grueling matches against Juventus and Real Madrid, and before the weekend’s derby at Espanyol.
It seemed it would not matter much after Lionel Messi struck early and Andrés Gomes extended the lead before half-time.
However, the decision might have been briefly questioned when Roberto Torres pulled a goal back at the start of the second half.
70 min: @Mascherano has his 1st official goal for Barça on a PK as things happened so fast we couldn’t type fast enough to explain it all! 😀 pic.twitter.com/qHb9MZaLcX
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 26, 2017
But Gomes and Messi both got their second goals of the evening either side of the hour to put the game to bed and Paco Alcacer and Javier Mascherano, the latter from the penalty spot, quickly added gloss to the scoreline with just 67 minutes on the clock.
Alcacer became the third player to score a double with four minutes remaining.
It was an emphatic scoreline to further increase confidence on the back of Barcelona’s clásico win against Real on Sunday.
Culled from The Guardian
