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Barcelona's debut in the 2018/19 Spanish League had little work to do in the start of the match, but a fantastic second-half free-kick by Lionel Messi opened the door for Ernesto Valverde's squad to close out the game with a 3-0 victory over Deportivo Alavés.
Messi added another goal to seal the deal, while Philippe Coutinho scored another goal to his LaLiga tally (nine goals in 19 matches for Barcelona in the Spanish tournament). Luis Suárez assisted Messi for his second goal of the night, but the Uruguayan did not enjoy a particularly good match in front of goal.
A solid defensive effort by Alavés was good for 63 minutes until Messi had a free-kick in front of Alavés' goal and produced a tricky shot which left Fernando Pacheco helpless.
The Spanish League got underway, and the reigning champions maintained its power at home, where its last defeat was against Alavés in 2016.
Let's rank the top three performers for Barcelona in its second official match of the season, the first at home.
#1 Lionel Messi
Messi opened a new LaLiga season with a strong performance, as usual. The Argentine magician scored a brilliant free-kick under the jumping-wall of Alavés players. The Barcelona number 10 was the leading goalscorer in the Spanish League the last two seasons and started another campaign demonstrating his fantastic goalscoring ability.
The Argentine virtuoso was the man who scored Barcelona's 5000th goal in LaLiga in February 2009, more than nine years later, the magical number 10 scored Barcelona's 6000th goal in its fabulous history in the Spanish League.
Messi scored his 554th goal for Barcelona (in 639 matches), and added to his historic tally of 385 goals in the Spanish League in 419 matches. The Argentinian returned to goalscoring in the first LaLiga match for Barcelona since his brace in the opener of the 2016/17 Spanish League season in a 6-2 victory over Real Betis.
#2 Philippe Coutinho
The Brazilian entered the pitch for the start of the second half after Barcelona's game in the first half was not spectacular. Coutinho kept his rhythm from last season and the FIFA World Cup and boosted Barcelona's offensive game.
In addition to his dribbling and passing, Coutinho added his ninth goal for Barcelona in the Spanish League since his arrival in January. The Brazilian scored his eleventh goal in his 24th match for the Catalan side.
Coutinho's goal came after his traditional move from left to right and his shot was headed to the far post, as Alavés' 'keeper, Pacheco, could not prevent Barcelona from taking a 2-0 lead with less than ten minutes to go.
#3 Sergio Busquets
Busquets was the man in the middle of Barcelona's field. A solid performance from the Spanish player helped Barcelona to control the ball the 79% of the time, which translated into 25 shots (nine shots on target) overall.
Busquets played over 85 minutes before he was subbed up by Chilean Arturo Vidal, who played his first official match in Camp Nou. Barcelona's number five produced many essential plays in Barcelona's midfield.
Also, his defensive awareness did not help Alavés' chances (only three shots, none of those were on target). Catalan fans were happy with the participation from one of its historical players in the squad and gave Busquets a standing ovation as he walked out of the pitch.
