Barcelona 3-0 Villarreal: Goal crazy hosts run riot in win over Yellow Submarine

Barcelona went goal crazy in the first half against Villarreal as Xavi shook up his team selection and dropped four of the players who had come up short for him against Real Madrid at the weekend.

Ousmane Dembele and summer signing from Leeds Raphinha were both benched with Ansu Fati making only his second start of the season in the league.

Sergio Busquets was dropped too with Frenkie de Jong in holding midfield and, with Eric Garcia also left out, former Chelsea full-back Marcos Alonso was at centre-back.

The result was a 3-0 scoreline at half time with the goals coming in just seven minutes and against a team that had previously only shipped three all season. The first on 31 minutes was a reminder of what Barcelona can do when they move the ball quickly.

Pedri’s early ball down the left was crossed first time by Jordi Alba to Lewandowski who had his back to goal but with a brilliant first touch sent defenders Raul Albiol and Pau Torres sliding past him and left himself facing front to shoot past Gero Rulli.

Four minutes later they had added a second and it was even better. Pedri won the ball back in midfield and played it to Gavi who bustled forward releasing Lewandowski who curled his shot from the edge of the area past Rulli.

He has scored 11 goals in 10 games in La Liga – Leo Messi-level numbers of around 40 for the season are well within his reach at this rate.

It was party time now and Fati got in on the act on 38 minutes. De Jong, who was impressing in Busquets’ position, started the move combining with Lewandowski. Ferran Torres slid it across the face of the six-yard box to the 19-year-old and although his first shot hit the post he flicked in from the rebound.

Unai Emery, whose PSG side once shipped six at the Camp Nou made a change at the break. Arnaut Danjuma who had one of Villarreal’s only first half chance, into the side netting, was off and Jose Luis Morales was on.

On 70 minutes Xavi was making changes. De Jong appeared to ask to come off for what looked like a minor injury problem and Busquets was brought on. Hector Bellerin was back from injury and replaced Sergi Roberto.

With Villarreal showing little faith that they could get back into the game Xavi gave Lewandowski and Fati an early cut with Dembele and Raphinha coming on. They almost combined immediately but the latter couldn’t finish from the former’s cross.

Gerard Pique then came on for Kounde with 13 minutes left. There had been a few isolated whistles for Busquets when he came on and there was a smattering of whistles for Pique too.

The singing section behind the goal then started to sing Pique’s name but with every chant there were a few more whistle from elsewhere in the stadium.

The debate will now focus on whether Xavi had brought Pique on late to expose him to those whistles. He will argue Kounde, recently back from injury, needed the rest.

The second half had been flat but the first period was superb and all this eases the pressure on Xavi. Mauricio Pochettino was at the Camp Nou to watch this one.

It’s probably too soon for a defeat to have activated the rumour mill of available coaches to replace him but Xavi can now look forward to Sunday’s visit of former Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde and his Athletic Bilbao side with more optimism.

Line-ups

Barcelona XI: Lewandowski, Alba, Ter Stegen, Roberto, Alonso, De Jong, Ferran Torres, Kounde, Fati, Pedri, Gavi

Subs: Pique, Busquets, Bellerin, Kessie, Dembele, Pena, Raphinha, Eric Garcia, Arnau Tenas, Álex Baldé, Pablo Torre

Villarreal XI: Albiol, Parejo, Femenia, Gerónimo Rulli, Manu Morlanes, Pedraza, Arnaut Danjuma, P. Torres, Álex Baena, Yeremy, Nicolas Jackson

Subs: Reina, Mandi, Mojica, Trigueros, Moreno, Morales, Samuel Chukwueze, Jorge Cuenca, Iker Álvarez