Barcelona triumphant against Celta Vigo

Barcelona flew west to Vigo on Tuesday, where fresh from their triumphs against Real Madrid in the El Clasico, they defeated a weary Celta side who are still yet to win at the Estadio de Balaidos this season.

The score was opened after just 9 minutes when Messi supplied a slick pass to Fabregas who saw his shot saved by Yoel in the Vigo goal, but his save parried the ball straight into the path of the high flying Alexis who drilled home into an empty net from 8 yards. 2 in 2 for Alexis who this season has silenced his critics of the past, including myself, as he has finally picked up the form and consistency he so often showed with Udinese.

Barcelona looked to control the game after the goal, keeping the ball and making the Vigo back line work hard to keep up with the constant movement of the Barcelona front line. A strategy to tire out the Vigo players didn’t go all Barca’s way however, as their youth player Rafinha who is on loan at Celta Vigo this season, broke on the counter and saw his shot go narrowly wide after a linking run which would only have impressed bosses at La Masia.

The ball did end up in the back of the net for Vigo minutes before the break but was ruled out well before the ball crossed the line for an infringement in the build up.

Into the second half and it take long for Barca to get things going once again as Alex Song teamed up superbly with Leo Messi with a dazzling one-two and Fabregas saw his curing effort bounce back of the bar and strike Yoel cruelly on the back and roll into the net to make it 0-2.

Barca made it 3-0 before the half hour mark when they conducted one of their aggressive counter attacks that have been displayed frequently this season and Messi accelerated towards the Vigo defence who picked out Fabregas in space who drilled a powerful left footed strike inside the near post.

Vigo were far from throwing in the towel despite taking some big blows as former Barcelona man, Nolito saw his superbly struck free kick ricochet back off the cross bar on 66 minutes with Victor Valdes truly beaten.

With 15 minute to go, Messi looked determined as ever to get himself on the score sheet forcing Yoel to make two excellent saves in the space of two minutes after two consecutive trademark runs dribbling the ball past several players in the process. The Argentine could easily be slammed as being greedy in the later opportunity, when he decided to go alone instead of using an unmarked Pedro in acres of space.

Santiago ‘Santi’ Mina had a great chance to deny Barcelona a clean sheet late on, after Vigo had broke away on the counter and despite the ball being pulled back to him in space, his first time effort was ballooned way over the goal from around 12 yards.

The game finished 3-0, and despite the resilience of Celta Vigo throughout, Leo Messi would surely have had nightmares about Yoel who denied him on a number of occasions of grabbing a goal. The win ensures that Barca stay top of La Liga with 31 points from 11 games and a whopping goal difference of +26.