It doesn’t feel like a brilliant performance, yet perhaps that is just the standards Barça set these days. After all they’ve just gone away to the side eighth in La Liga and thumped them 4-0. They extend their unbeaten run in all competitions to 36 games, move 11 points clear of Atlético at the summit, and a sixth league title in eight seasons now seems inevitable.
That’s all from me, thanks for reading.
100 - Messi, Neymar and Suárez have scored 100 goals combined in all competitions this season for Barcelona. MSN.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 6, 2016
Full-time: Eibar 0-4 Barcelona
Sergi Roberto finishes the game with a flashed shot into Riesgo’s midriff and before Eibar can respond the whistle blows.
90 mins: Japanese striker Takashi Inui comes off the bench and immediately feeds Capa on the overlap, but Barcelona’s defending is committed as ever and they eventually force a goal-kick.
88 mins: Alba lofts a teasing cross into the box but Riesgo plucks the balls out of the air with Messi and Suárez lurking.
Suárez collects a pass from the substitute Sergi Roberto on the right of the box and faces up to two defenders, nutmegging one and shrugging off the other before firing a low, angled drive into the far corner. A century of goals now between Messi, Neymar and Suárez this season. How ridiculous.
GOAL! Eibar 0-4 Barcelona (Suárez, 84 mins)
Brilliant solo effort, and that is MSN’s 100th goal of the season. It’s barely March.
83 mins: Suárez misses a golden chance to add his name to the scoreboard, flicking a free header into Riesgo’s gloves when Messi’s delivery was there to be buried.
81 mins: Luis Enrique rings the changes with Pique, Turan and Busquets coming off, and Sergi Roberto, Bartra and Vermaelen coming on.
79 mins: Pantic whips another dangerous cross in from the left but with Baston off the field there’s no target man to finish the chance.
Messi dribbled into the box and sold a couple of dummies before getting to the byline and attempting to cross low into the box. Ramis slid to block and it struck his arm but he was no more than a yard away from the ball and it seemed a little harsh. Eibar barely have the energy to argue however and Messi steps up, dinking the ball cheekily down the middle.
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GOAL! Eibar 0-3 Barcelona (Messi pen, 76)
And that little chip down the middle should finish this one off.
Penalty to Barcelona!
73 mins: Eibar’s challenge is petering out a little here.
Dac Hewison emails: “What is it about modern football and short corners? Most modern teams, especially the quality teams, such and Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United all use corners. And as you say – generally they are unsuccessful. So why are they used so often?”
There is a book called The Numbers Game which claims to statistically prove that it is not profitable to cross corners into the box and that they should always be taken short (or words to that effect). Perhaps everyone’s read it and agrees, but I enjoy a proper swing into the mixer personally.
70 mins: Messi goes on a little weave through the middle and he’s tripped to the floor. Chance from the free-kick, 30 yards out... but his effort is easy enough for Riesgo to get behind and catch at chest height.
67 mins: Berjon replaces top-scorer Baston in Eibar’s attack.
Mark Turner emails with some love for Eibar: “...compact, well-drilled, tells of smart use of the training ground and a good manager. The only ‘error’ was to push for an equalizer and get mown down for leaving the gaps, but getting beaten by an on-form Messi applies to the world’s biggest teams, not just La Liga’s smallest. More power to Eibar.”
I tend to agree. They are eighth in La Liga and are competing with Barça better than most – and not for the first time this season.
65 mins: Barcelona play the ball out from the back with supreme control but Eibar win it back and break. Enrich stretches the defence before turning and setting up Adrian for a blast from the edge of the box but it sails another full goal’s height over the bar.
63 mins: Eibar work well down the right until Capa’s misplaced pass goes straight off the pitch for a Barça throw.
61 mins: It’s difficult to make this performance sound more exciting than it is. Barcelona have worked hard and had lots of control of the ball but have had to rely almost entirely on Messi to create anything in the final third – Neymar and Iniesta are missed creatively.
58 mins: Radosevic’s latest clattering is dished out to fellow countryman Rakitic. Still no second yellow card but just by virtue of accumulation he is walking the disciplinary tightrope.
56 mins: Corner to Barcelona, which is delayed while Rakitic moves a selection of bags and drinks bottles and other sideline items, Sunday-League style. The corner is played short and like all short corners throughout the history of time, it’s unsuccessful.
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54 mins: Messi should be through on goal but instead takes a life-affirmingly poor first touch and Eibar escape.
If this series of lines, dots and arrows doesn’t bring Barça’s opener to life for you, nothing will.
📈 This is how Messi, Alves, Sergio Busquets and Suárez combined for Munir's goal #EibarFCB #fcblive pic.twitter.com/IreWIQQPZ2
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 6, 2016
51 mins: Alves and Rakitic work a nice one-two down the right but the latter’s cross is weak and easily intercepted.
Charles Antaki also gets in touch with Spanish insight: “I’ve just clocked that Eibar’s keeper is called Riesgo - which is ‘risk’ in Spanish. Jokes are superfluous, of course, since Bravo at the other end could be rendered as ‘wild’.”
49 mins: It’s a scrappy start to the half, a few fouls in succession breaking the game up. Eventually Barça get hold of the ball but Munir’s pass to Alba on the overlap is poor and the move breaks down.
47 mins: Radosevic, on a yellow card, bundles over Rakitic in midfield a little clumsily but gets away with only a foul. No changes at the break for either side, by the way.
Kick-off
Peeeeeep! We are back in business.
Half times stats from #EibarFCB with Barça leading 2-0 #fcblive https://t.co/IHhGKiBMVC pic.twitter.com/hPXZmwL4og
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 6, 2016
Half-time correspondence
“Ray Hudson is on good form,” emails Charles Antaki. “On the precision of the pass to Suárez that led to the goal: ‘Messi gets a pint measure into a shot glass two villages away from here.’ Why don’t 5-live snap him up?”
Ray Hudson, for anyone who doesn’t know, is a revered British commentator who has a spectacular way with words that this blog can only aspire to achieve:
Half-time: Eibar 0-2 Barcelona
Munir’s tap-in and Messi’s dribble and finish hand the league leaders the advantage at the break.
44 mins: Jordi Alba pokes a little pass for Rakitic arriving in the six-yard box who can’t quite add the toe the ball needed to add a third.
Barça go on the counterattack and Munir slips the ball to Messi 40 yards out facing three defenders. The little master comes forward as they gulp and retreat, and the rest is classic Messi, shuffling quickly to the left before firing a low shot into the bottom-right from 12 yards.
GOAL! Eibar 0-2 Barcelona (Messi, 41 mins)
And when a team has the temerity to attack Barça, Messi tends to punish them.
40 mins: Brilliant from Eibar who are really going at Barça right now. They win the ball high up the pitch and a couple of quick passes open up the champions’ defence until Busquets slides across to deflect the shot wide.
38 mins: Dani Garcia delivers another dangerous ball to the back post, where Ramis is lurking. He’s a good few inches higher than Alves and Rakitic around him and has the time to angle a headed pass across the six-yard box – but no one is there to convert.
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35 mins: At the other end a deep, dipping cross from the left finds Escalante arriving to volley across goal and just past the far post with Bravo totally planted. Difficult technique, admittedly, but he probably should have hit the target and the crowd seem to have let him know just that.
33 mins: Another lovely pass by Mr Messi and Munir misses a bit of a sitter one-on-one when he could have handed Suárez an open goal with a square pass, returning the favour for the first goal. Luis is not too happy.
31 mins: The relentless workrate of both these sides high in their opponent’s third is keeping the tempo high, but also denying much goalmouth action. Barça are 1-0 up and look in good control of this one, without displaying their magical best so far.
28 mins: Rakitic swings in a corner but it’s punched a long way clear by Riesgo. John McEnerney isn’t holding out much hope for plucky Eibar:
@LawrenceOstlere Eibar who've punched above their weight so far this season cud get 40 shades beaten out of them today Barca to hit 5
— John McEnerney (@MackerOnTheMed) March 6, 2016
26 mins: Eibar are starting to put together a little bit of pressure, Bravo punching away the initial cross and Capa’s follow-up a little overhit. In the centre Escalante wanted a penalty for a tug by Alves but it would have been very soft.
24 mins: Messi is dropping deep and dictating with some very inventive passing – perhaps it’s a glimpse ten years into the future. The latest chip forward tries to find Munir but the winger is offside.
21 mins: The ball drops out of sky invitingly for Junca but the Eibar left-back makes a bit of a hash of an ambitious right-foot volley. Eibar continue to hunt for the ball deep in Barça territory and seem to have pinned Mascherano into a corner until his chip to Rakitic is wonderfully controlled and the visitors escape again.
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19 mins: Messi tries to thread Munir in on goal but his pass is just a little overhit and it runs through safely for Riesgo.
17 mins: Pass, pass, pass, pass – Eibar are struggling to get a touch right now.
15 mins: Eibar again try to press high but Barça pick off the pressure masterfully and work the ball wide for Messi. He bends a delicious ball for Turan sprinting into the box but the midfielder’s crafty backheel can’t quite pick out Suárez.
13 mins: It could so easily be level – Radosevic battles down the right and bends in a dangerous cross but Ramis can only head over from eight yards.
11 mins: Jordi Albi runs a low one through the cavernous gap between right-back and centre-half for Suárez to chase but, under some pressure, the forward fires over the bar from 20 yards.
9 mins: Replays show Luis Suárez was right on the line of the last defender when he made his dart towards the byline, but I make him just about level.
With his first touches Messi sniffs out a lovely high throughball down the right for Suárez in behind, who takes a touch before squaring to Munir to tap in at the back post. It was all made to look very, very easy.
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GOAL! Eibar 0-1 Barcelona (Munir, 7 mins)
Messi and Suárez combine and the deadlock is broken.
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4 mins: Radosevic slides to block Munir’s cross down the left but gets done by some quick feet and inadvertently handles the ball on the floor. He gets a yellow card which seems a little harsh, but Barça can’t make anything of the set piece.
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2 mins: Barça quickly settle on the ball but Eibar have started with a very high press and the visitors are being forced back into their own half, meaning no sniff of the ball at the sharp end just yet.
Kick-off
Peeeeep! And Barcelona get things going, decked out in deckchair-style yellow with orange stripes. Still awful. Will always be awful.
The players are out and hands are being shaken in the middle of Eibar’s tiny Ipurua Stadium (capacity 6,300). Kick-off imminent.
Last time out
Back in October, La Liga’s smallest club by most metrics stunned the Camp Nou through Borja Bastón’s eighth minute goal and led for nearly 20 minutes until Luis Suárez kicked into gear – his hat-trick eventually settled matters.
Elsewhere in the world of football, Crystal Palace have scored against Liverpool which you can read all about here with Rob Smyth.
The teams
Eibar: Riesgo; Pantic, Ramis, Capa, Junca, Radosevic, Escalante, Garcia, Adrian, Borja, Enrich
Subs: Irureta, Ansotegi, Inui, Hajrovic, Dos Santos, Luna, Berjon
Barcelona: Bravo; Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Alba; Busquets, Rakitic, Turan; Suárez, Messi, Munir
Subs: Ter Stegen, Iniesta, Bartra, Roberto, Vidal, Vermaelen, Mathieu
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Preamble
Should there one day be a Spanish equivalent of the documentary Keane and Vieira: the best of enemies featuring Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, it would make pretty compelling watching. In case you missed it, the original programme paired the former Manchester United and Arsenal captains in a cosy underground bunker setting where they retold old stories and picked a combined best XI of former team-mates, all of which was given a special edge by the murky passive-aggression in Roy Keane’s eyes.
The point of all this is that Messi’s current Barça band have just set a new Spanish record for games unbeaten in all competitions (35), and they are the current Spanish, European and world champions. So are they the best Messi-era Barcelona team yet?
Perhaps one day, in an underground bunker alongside a 45-year-old overly competitive Cristiano, we will find out whether Leo prefers Ronaldinho or Neymar, Suárez or Villa. Feel free to send me your opinion, but for now we will have to make do with watching Barcelona’s Messi Mark III (ish) team, one of the greatest creations in modern European football who have already racked up 121 goals this season – and are probably about to score a few more.
Kick-off: 1500 GMT
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