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BARCELONA (Reuters) – Barcelona beat Lionel Messi on Monday in the absence of injury and won 5-2 at home against Valencia on Saturday in the fourth round of the Primera Liga to take fourth place, two points of the leader Atletico Madrid.
Barca has made his best game of the season so far, winning a deserved win over his home team, who has shown dew in some episodes of the game that Barcelona has almost completely dominated.
Barca has seven points to climb to fourth and Valencia has four.
Barcelona has avenged its 1/2 defeat against Valencia in the final of the King's Cup last season and received a huge boost in the early stages of the competition.
Barça not only took the win in this match, but also the outstanding elements that left their mark in the match, where played the young player Ansumani Vati and the young Dutch star Frankie De Jong.
Luis Suarez also made a strong comeback and scored two goals after being sidelined by an injury.
Barcelona ended the first period with two goals from Fati and De Jong in the second and seventh minutes against a Kevin Gamero goal in the 27th minute.
In the second half, while Suarez came off the bench in the 60th minute, Barcelona encumbered the visitors with three goals scored by Gerard Pique in the 51st minute and Suarez in the 61st and 82nd minutes, while Maximiliano Gomez scored the second goal for Valencia to the second minute.
Barcelona knocked out its guests with a whimsical start, with two goals before the first seven minutes of the game to stand out from the win.
Barcelona's two goals are attributed to new stars Ansumani Vati and young Dutchman Frankie de Jong, where the two players cooperated to score goals.
The first goal came after a quick attack from Barcelona and a De Jong center from the right. The Fati impulse in the center of the penalty area did not hesitate to hit the ball to the left of the goalkeeper, scoring the goal for Barcelona in the second minute.
Barcelona maintained its offensive pressure in the apparent confusion of the Valencia defense, which allowed Barcelona to score the second goal in the seventh minute.
The goal came after a quick attack from the left in which Fati handled Valencia's defense inside the penalty area before Gemayel returned to his Dutch team-mate.
De Jong, 22, left Ajax to settle in Barcelona this summer, while Fati, born in Guinea-Bissau, left the club's second team and grew up in the United States. Barcelona youth team that he joined in 2012. Seville of Spain at the age of nine.
After Barcelona took full control of the match in the first quarter of the match, Valencia attempted to exchange host attacks and gave the team its first chance in the 18th minute, but the defense Barcelona intervened on time and withdrew the ball from Rodrigo Moreno.
Valencia repeated the attempt in the 20th minute after a quick attack from striker Kevin Gamero, but ended the powerful shot out of goal.
Over time, Valencia's performances have improved and have become a strong match for Barcelona, especially with the decline of the Catalan attack after the first two goals.
Gamero took advantage of a quick attack from Valencia in the 27th minute and a good center from Rodrigo Moreno. He was followed by German goalkeeper Marc Andre Ter Stegen and hit the ball to the right of the goalkeeper before touching the post.
The referee used the video assistant arbitration system (VAR) to make sure that Jamero did not fall into an offside position while passing the ball to him. Indeed, the referee confirmed the validity of the goal to reduce the difference between Valencia and Barcelona.
Ter Stegen was forced to enter the penalty area in the 37th minute to counter a dangerous attack by Valencia, who pulled the ball against Gamero despite Valencia's intense efforts to clinch a draw. .
Barca felt embarrassed and the team resumed the offensive pressure on visitors in the final minutes of the half.
Barça resumed their offensive pressure early in the second half and was quickly rewarded. Gerard Pique scored the third goal in the 51st minute.
The goal came after a quick attack from Barcelona and a shot from French Antoine Griezmann Besra from the penalty area, but Dutch goalkeeper Jasper Silesen made a fatal mistake in handling the ball despite the lack of strength to hit him, before leaving the pole and preparing Pique to stay calm.
Jordi Alba of Barcelona was cautioned in the 54th minute for roughing Rodrigo Moreno.
Barcelona maintained their offensive pressure in the ensuing minutes and Nelson Semedo hit a superb ball that hit the right post of the Valencia goalkeeper and passed behind the goalkeeper to take over Valencia's defense.
The Barcelona coach, Ernesto Valverde, pushed Uruguayan Luis Suarez in the 60th minute in place of the brilliant teenager Fati.
Suarez rewarded his coach and scored the fourth goal the next minute when the ball came in front of the penalty area. He prepared himself and shot directly to hit the right post before wobbling inside the goal.
In the 64th minute, Griezmann and Karl Perez shot twice in a row, but the goalkeeper had brilliantly saved them.
Suarez fired another powerful shot from distance in the 65th minute, but the goalkeeper saved him firmly.
The two teams continued their attack in the following minutes and each missed several opportunities with a clear superiority over Barcelona, who scored his fifth goal in the 82nd minute with the signing of Suarez.
The goal came after an attack organized by Barcelona in which the Valencia players have several times reached the ball at Griezmann, who has quietly prepared for Suarez to hit the last strong point in the narrow corner to get into the goal to the right of the goalkeeper.
Gomez scored the second goal for Valencia and the match takes a breather to narrow the gap with the Catalans in injury time.
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