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| Barça players celebrate against Deportivo Alavés |
It was a fantastic day of football in Vitoria as FC Barcelona put up one of their best performances of the season to comfortably beat Deportivo Alavés 6-0 away from home, but the win was soured by the chronic injury of defender Aleix Vidal.
Goals from Luis Suárez, Lionel Messi, Neymar and Ivan Rakitic ensured Luis Enrique’s men go home with a perfect result, but then, Aleix Vidal ended the game with a broken ankle that will keep him out of the rest of the season.
It was all Barça from the first moment but somehow, Alavés were let off the hook on more than one occasion. The visitors got the first real clear chance of the game though after Theo Hernandez outpaced Digne on the left to find himself in a one-on-one situation with Ter Stegen but the German goalkeeper did well to stop the shot.
Barça found the breakthrough on the 38th minute after fine work from Messi, Neymar and Rakitic allowed Aleix Vidal to pull a fine low cross towards the path of Suarez who finished past Pacheco, 1-0.
That goal opened the floodgates and it was 2-0 three minutes later. A fine pass from Messi wasn’t met by Suarez, but Paycheck mishandled the ball which came off Suarez’s face towards the path of Neymar who slotted into an empty net. 2-0 at halftime.
Alavés started well in the second half and Santos missed a glorious chance to pull one back after he fired over an empty net. Barça punished that as Messi made it 3-0 just before the hour mark after he fired a low shot past Pacheco.
A few minutes later, Suarez pocked up Messi with a pass but he had little space to take a shot, however, Alavés defender Alexis put the ball into his own net. Rakitic then scored a stunner later on before Luis Suarez pounced on a Neymar rebound to make it 6-0, Barça scored four seconds half goals in nine minutes.
Barça continued their domination until the very end and had a couple of chances to increase their lead, but what would follow would be tragic as Theo Hernandez pulled a terrible tackle on Aleix Vidal, fracturing his ankle.. A player who is on the form of his life is now likely to miss the rest of the season, how sad.
