Untouchable Barca stings Malaga at La Roseleda

Barca’s first outing against Malaga at La Rosaleda was sealed with a 3-1 scoreline and there was little Pellegrini could do to stop Barca from steamrollering his team. With one of the best Barca teams we have ever seen, it looks like the Catalan club have already reserved this season’s league title after just 19 matches.

Tito Vilanova was on the bench for this one and back in his rightful place. His team welcomed him home from New York with a great game against an opponent that Barca has to face in the Copa del Rey. This is bad news for Malaga because if they want to go any further in the competition, they’ll have to knock out Barcelona to do it and by judging on last night’s performance, it’s going to be an uphill task.

The Catalans showed their superiority from the beginning and got out of the starting blocks early. In the 7th minute the Malaga keeper Caballero,  stopped the home side from going down one nil to Messi who picked up a pass from Iniesta that Weligton failed to clear. To the surprise of his Malaga team mates,  he managed to get a hand on that one.  Messi can forgive only once and the second chance usually goes in.

In 27th minute Camacho passed back to his keeper without realizing that the Argentine was lurking. The gift fell at Messi’s feet and he made no mistake in punishing Malaga for their error. This goal knocked the wind out of Malaga who was trying but without any real danger, to reach Valdés who was very well protected by his back four. It just wasn’t going to be neither Isco nor Eliseu’s day. Neither Joaquin, let alone Santa Cruz could find a way to the visitor’s goal.

Barca continued playing like they only know how and it was a matter of time before the second goal came. It came in the 50th minute with some gameplay between Messi and Cesc. The Argentine crossed a majestic ball diagonally over to Fabregás who controlled it with his left and beat the keeper with a right footed shot. It was probably the best piece of action from the game and put Malaga well and truly on the back foot.

From 0-2 to 0-3 we saw the very best of Barca and that last half an hour showed La Liga the enormous advantage the Catalan club have over the rest of the clubs.

Thiago joined the goal party in minute 82 and it was Messi that invited him to put the ball past Caballero who saw it too late. Valdes neither smelt the direct free kick from Buonanotte who scored Malaga’s consolation goal in the 90th minute. Alexis had the fourth in the bag at the death but got himself in a tangle. That would have been all too perfect if that had gone in.