Barcelona recorded a nervy 3-0 win over Espanyol in the Catalan derby to maintain the pressure on title favourites Real Madrid. The win helped Luis Enrique’s side leapfrog Los Blancos at the top of the La Liga table and the Blaugrana need to win their remaining three games while hoping that Madrid lose in one of their remaining four.
After a drab first-half in which the Camp Nou outfit failed to register even a single shot on target, Luis Suarez opened the scoring at the start of the second half after intercepting a horrific backpass from Jurado which put him one-on-one with Diego Lopez. Ivan Rakitic doubled the lead after Messi embarked on one of his trademark runs leaving the Espanyol players in his wake.
Suarez then hit the sucker punch when he capitalized on yet another defensive mistake by Aaron Martin who sliced the ball while trying to clear Messi’s chipped ball into the box. The Uruguayan rounded the goalkeeper before slotting the ball into the back of the net from around 4 yards out.
Twitter, as you would expect, celebrated Barcelona’s win and the trademark runs by Messi, which left the opposition bamboozled. Here are the best tweets:
Messi-ah!
Ouch!
Well, life is not always fair!
Meanwhile, MSN!
Indeed, he does!
Busquets is returning to his theatrical best!
Is Neymar really hampering Barcelona?
Despite his two goals, Suarez was anonymous for most parts of the game!
Oh, poor Espanyol!
