TEMPO.CO, Barcelona - Barcelona stayed perfect on the young LaLiga season with an 8-2 thumping of newly-promoted Huesca on Sunday evening at the Camp Nou in Barcelona.
Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez each notched a brace, while Ousmane Dembele, Ivan Rakitic, Jordi Alba and a Huesca own goal supplied the rest of the goals for the hosts.
The final score will reflect a Barcelona rout, but that was hardly the case at half-time with Barcelona holding just a 3-2 advantage. The underdog visitors from Aragon can take solace from their first 45 minutes in which they took the game to Barcelona and were good value for their early 1-0 lead through Cucho Hernandez.
In the end, Barcelona's quality and Huesca's fatigue facilitated a three-goal in 14 minutes spell for the home side at the start of the second half that sealed the three points.
Manager Ernesto Valverde repeated the same XI that took the field in Valladolidlast week, but they took a while to show up because within minutes Huesca were ahead 1-0. Huesca's passing and movement was crisp from the start and a cross from Jorge Miramon was nodded down by Samuele Longo and Cucho Hernandez was there to redirect in past Marc-Andre ter Stegen to give the visitors a shock lead.
Barcelona wasn't finding much space in the Huesca half, so Messi just took it upon himself to make something happened by shaking off a group of defenders before firing in a laser past Huesca goalkeeper Werner to pull Barcelona level 1-1.
The home side had found their rhythm and by the hour mark they had taken the lead thanks to an own goal. Ousmane Dembele found Jordi Alba streaking down the left and the cut-back pass from the left-back bounced off the leg of Huesca defender Jorge Pulido to make it 2-1 to Barcelona.
A week after VAR correctly overruled a last-second Valladolid equaliser against Barcelona, technology was once again on the Catalonians' side as Alba was ruled to be onside when he collected a pass before crossing for Suarez, who finished strong into net for the 3-1 lead.
Just when Barcelona thought they could put things on cruise control, Huescacame right back and Moi Gomez did exceptionally well to beat Samuel Umtiti to a ball that had deflected up in the air and crossed for Alex Gallar, who poked home from yards out to make it 3-2 at intermission.
There was no let up from the two sides to start the second stanza and Messi could call himself unlucky after hammering a shot off the crossbar just second after the re-start. Dembele was spared such misfortune as he ran onto a brilliantly played pass from Suarez and fired in past Werner to restore Barcelona's two-goal advantage, 4-2.
The Huesca resistance was starting to wane and suddenly it was 5-2 after Rakitictook a Messi pass on the right and one-timed it into the back of the net.
It was all Barcelona the rest of the way and it took just two touches for Messi to extend the lead to 6-2. Ter Stegen rolled a ball forward to Philippe Coutinho, who charged forward before playing a ball into Messi and with acres of space the Argentine could calmly stroke in his second of the night.
From there, it was mostly a training exercise for Barcelona, who happily batted the ball while probing for chances. Alba made it 7-2 with a fine finish off a Messi pass and in the final seconds Suarez capped the 8-2 scoreline with a penalty conversion after being taken down in the area by Werner.
MARCA
