Barcelona made light work of beating Leganes, booking their place in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey. Messi scored a brace on his 500th win with Barcelona.
Match Report
Lionel Messi struck twice as Barcelona bounced back from their first defeat under Quique Setien with a resounding 5-0 victory over Leganes in the last 16 of the Copa del Rey.
A 2-0 loss at Valencia on Saturday resulted in reigning LaLiga champions Barca falling three points adrift of rivals Real Madrid in the title race, but they appeared to get right back on track at Camp Nou on Thursday.
Setien named a strong starting line-up and Antoine Griezmann took less than four minutes to open the scoring, with Clement Lenglet nodding in the second before the half-hour mark.
Messi extended their advantage with a fortuitous finish in the 59th minute, and he doubled his tally after substitute Arthur found the back of the net to send Barca breezing into the quarter-finals.
Match Events
4' GOAL! Barcelona 1-0 Leganes (Griezmann)
Semedo is played into acres of space down the right and cuts the ball back for Griezmann, who takes a touch to set himself and then fires across Cuellar into the far corner from 10 yards.
9' OFFSIDE! Griezmann scores but goal is disallowed
Messi lifts the ball over the top and Alba knocks it into the path of Vidal. Cuellar makes the save and Griezmann taps in the rebound, but the offside flag had already gone up.
After a lengthy VAR check, the officials' decision to rule out Griezmann's strike for offside stands. It looked very tight! Play continues and Mesa fires off target.
27' GOAL! Barcelona 2-0 Leganes (Lenglet)
Lenglet gets the run on Braithwaite at the front post and flicks Messi's corner past Cuellar to double Barcelona's lead.
59' GOAL! Barcelona 3-0 Leganes (Messi)
Messi gets a bit lucky as the ball falls kindly for him after weaving between Awaziem and Siovas, before firing in a shot that deflects off Rodrigues and over Cuellar.
77' GOAL! Barcelona 4-0 Leganes (Arthur)
Fati gets on the end of a deflected throughball and is denied by Cuellar from the one-on-one. Messi's follow-up is then blocked on the line by Awaziem, but Arthur makes it third time lucky by pouncing on the loose ball to slot home.
89' GOAL! Barcelona 5-0 Leganes (Messi)
Rakitic slots a delightful throughball into the path of Messi, who rounds Cuellar and then converts into an empty net to double his personal tally for the day.
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