Malaga 0-2 Barcelona: 5 Talking Points

Barcelona are one step closer to winning the La Liga title after their comfortable win over Malaga last night. Goals from Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho ensured the Blaugrana will remain eight points clear of Atletico Madrid if Los Rojiblancos win their game in hand.

Heading into the tie, Barca were always the favourites against a Malaga side who have collected just 13 points in the league so far. It took just 15 minutes for Jordi Alba to find Suarez inside the box who did no mistake and guided his header into the back of the net. Barcelona’s two most expensive signings then combined for the second goal of the game.

Dembele did well to find Coutinho from the right and the former Liverpool star cleverly flicked the ball past with Roberto to make it two.

Here are the talking points from the game…

#5 No Messi, no problem

Lionel Messi and Barcelona’s announcement took the social media by storm. Messi and Antonella Roccuzzo announced the birth of their third son, Ciro, and the star was left out of his side’s clash against Malaga.

It was perhaps the perfect timing as Malaga have been pretty abject this season. Barcelona’s squad depth is pretty scary and that came to the fore. Dembele, the man who replaced Messi, arguably put his best performance in a Barcelona shirt and he assisted the team’s second goal of the night.

Messi has played quite a lot of games and though no one comes close to him in terms of his creativity barring Andres Iniesta, Dembele’s provided the directness and his quick feet helped him complete five dribbles on the night. A pretty impressive display!

#4 Even 11 men wouldn’t have made a difference

Malaga v Barcelona - La Liga — Garcia was sent off in the first half

When you’re struggling at the foot of the table, the last thing you need is for your team to be reduced to 10 men. Samuel Garcia was the culprit for being too rash last night as he was sent off for a dangerous challenge on Jordi Alba.

In the 30th minute of the game, he went in with a studs-up challenge and it Alba was perhaps lucky to get away with just a bruise. If you’re a Malaga fan, you can’t really defend the challenge.

The side were two goals down by the time Garcia was sent off, but the way the game was going, no one will argue 11 men would have made a difference.

Barcelona took the foot off the gas in the second half and were happy to keep the ball and test Roberto occasionally as Malaga were just desperate for the full-time whistle as the players knew there was no way back.

#3 Philippe Coutinho’s performance

It was a strange performance from the Brazilian. Of course, it’d be pretty easy to say that he scored a goal and passed the ball nicely to create a few openings for his team, but there are areas where he can yet improve.

Coutinho was dispossessed the maximum number of times in the game, five to be precise, and that’s one issue that Barcelona will look at in the bigger games. He won’t be playing in the Champions League, so there aren’t too many big games he’ll feature in, but playing him more often in the league could allow him to get used to the pace of the game.

The Brazilian prefers playing on the left and the biggest positive from last night was he often came deep to collect the ball and pass it to his teammates, something we saw regularly at Liverpool. He also had quite a few shots from his preferred angle, but didn’t manage to add to his tally of one goal.

#2 Luis Suarez – a season of two halves

The Uruguayan was once again brilliant on the night as Malaga simply couldn’t deal with his movement and combination play with the rest of the attackers. This is the same Suarez who had a terrible first touch at the start of the season and couldn’t buy a goal.

Fast forward a few months, and he just can’t stop scoring! His goal against Malaga took his league goals tally to 21, just three shy of his teammate Lionel Messi who leads the goalscoring charts.

It was a complete display from Suarez who opened the scoring for the away side. It wasn’t the easiest of finishes either as he wasn’t all that close to the goal. The header wasn’t about power as Suarez decided to deftly guide it to the far post, almost like a potter!

#1 A game that summed up both the teams this season

Barcelona have been unstoppable this year, The game against Malaga showed that while it’s hard to stop their attack from scoring, getting past their midfield comprising of Busquets and then an in-form defence is easier said than done.

The likes of Pique, Umtiti, Alba and Ter Stegen had stellar seasons and the presence of a disciplinarian in Ernesto Valverde has added he steeliness that wasn’t there since the Pep Guardiola days.

Mala, on the other hand, just didn’t have the quality. They’ve scored just 16 goals this season, a tally better by Suarez and Messi alone, and have shipped in 45 goals. Though there is a mathematical chance of surviving, realistically, Malaga should start preparing for life in the Segunda division.