While Eibar were a worthy opponent for majority of the match, that felt like a routine performance in the second half. 3-0 win in our first home game in 2019.
The biggest positive was Coutinho's performance. Didn't get on the scoresheet but he used his opportunity today, looking lively, regularly involved and playing part in the first two goals. Dembele came on late in the match when the result was already safe, but he still managed to cause a few threats, thanks to his speed demon ability. It would be wonderful if Valverde manages to make both him and Philippe work in the line-up more often.
Luis Suarez scored a brace. Quality one touch football between him and Coutinho resulted in the opening goal, while he scored his second from a tight angle after Roberto's throw-in assist. Moments earlier he sent the ball straight into the goalkeeper from a free header which sums his up. Can miss easy chances but also score from nothing. Anyway, after today he needs just one more to tie Josep Escola's tally of 167 goals - 5th best total for any Barcelona player.
A landmark moment. Not as influential today as usual, but Lionel Messi scored Barcelona's second goal today, which is his 400th in La Liga, after only 435 games played in Spain's biggest competition. Without doubt the finest player to ever bless La Liga with his football, and he still has more to offer in terms of all attacking qualities for a couple more years at least.
That's the first half of La Liga. Barcelona are the "winter champions", with a five point lead over 2nd placed Atletico and ten points ahead of Sevilla and Real Madrid. On previous 22 occasions when the club was on top after half the games played, La Liga title was celebrated 14 times. Decent 64% success rate, and a good position to be in right now with Atletico Madrid being the only ones who trail by single digits. What looked like the tightest battle at the top not so long ago, it's now shaping into to a similar picture to the one we had back in February last season - 5 point difference between Barca and Atleti, with the rest well behind. Will the end result be the same? It remains to be seen, Barcelona have the momentum now with six wins in a row, but have a few tough trips coming in the second half. Atletico continued grinding out narrow wins, very ugly but they won't care as long as they are in this title race...
Next test, 2nd leg of Copa against Levante. Trailing after losing 2-1 away, so it's going to be interesting how strong will the line-up be in midweek. Valverde didn't hold back last season when two uncomfortable scorelines were taken to Camp Nou. Will he dare to put our Copa del Rey streak at risk?
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I see Manchester United defeated Tottenham at Wembley. Pity I missed that, but I was watching Barcelona. Was it a good performance? Maybe they can give PSG a good game.
