FC Barcelona continued their excellent run in the league with a 4-1 demolition of Racing Santander at El Sardinero stadium. Two goals from Messi and one each from Ibrahmovic and Pique was enough to see Barca comfortably past Racing. Like the weekend it was a sensational first half display which put Barca in command. Now Barca has moved three points clear and the pressure will be surely on Madrid to respond against Villareal. Ibrahmovic scored his fourth goal in the league from that many matches. It was by far the best performance by the Swedish superstar and incidently it was also the best performance by Barca till now. Messi is keeping on improving and is surprising everyone with each match. I expected Guardiola to rest Messi for this match but that wasn't to be happened. Guardiola brought in Puyol and Abidal in the defense. Thus Alves, Pique, Puyol and Abidal formed the defense. The midfield was made up of Xavi, Kieta and Busquets. Messi, Ibrahmociv and Henry formed the forward line-up. Keita has been a vast improvement to the last season and now looks like an attacking option in the midfield.FC Barcelona started to dominate from the start. In the 4th minute Henry saw his shot curl outs
ide of the far post. Then Ibrahmovic did well to get off his marker but his shot went way wide off the post. In the 20th minute we derevingly took the lead from an Ibrahmovic free kick. Xavi played a free kick from 30 yards out to Messi on the right who sent in a inch perfect cross towards the far post; Ibrahmovic rose above Henrique, who is on loan from Barca to nod home the first goal. Ibrahmovic was unlucky not to double the lead the next minute, when his shot froma tight angle hit the post. Barca indeed doubled the lead through Messi in the 24th minute. Keita played the ball to Messi in the middle, who played an instant 1-2 with Xavi, then cut inside one defender and shot low into the far corner of the goal. Barca made the scoreline 0-3 in the 27th minute when the Racing defense failed to clear the corner; the rebound was played into the box; Ibrahmovic played a great backheel between five defenders finding an unmarked Pique who finished calmly. In the injury time of first half Messi ahd the ball in the net again but was ruled offside.The second half started the way it was expected. The tempo was much less than in the first half. Ibrahmovic was substituted after he picked up an ankle injury in the strangest of fashion. He was replaced by Pedro in the 53rd minute. In the 55th minute Keita saw his 20 yard long shot stopped by the goal keeper. In the 63rd minute Messi struck the last nail into Racing's coffin with a sensational goal. Messi received the ball on the far right and cut inside; faked thrice to take a shot and finally struck a thunder bolt into the far left corner from the
middle of the box. Simply Superb. In the 65th minute Messi was taken off and Iniesta was brought in. In the 73rd minute Oscar Serrano struck a beutiful goal for Racing, but that could act only as a consolation. Pedro had a good penalty shout towards the end but wasn't givenEventhough it was a great display of attacking football, we suffered with occasional lapses in the defense. There were some memorable performance tobe noticed in this match. Messi was simply out of this world and he does love this stadium. One assist and two superb goals was a great result for the Argentinian superstar. Keita do deserve a mention for his exploits. He provides Guardiola with a greater flexibility in the middle but Guardiola should always remember that Iniesta is more dangerous and effective when played in the middle. We still haven't got into full groove and I can't wait to see the team perform at cent percent.