FC Barcelona has not seen first place since they lost to Real Madrid back in October 25, 2014. They have battled and conquered almost every game since, except for a couple matches here and there in which they lost 1-0 in all matches but were able to still maintain second place since then. Now thanks to Real Madrid tying against Villarreal last weekend and now losing to Athletic Bilbao on Saturday afternoon, things have turned for the best for the Catalan team.
Barcelona took advantage of the fact that Real Madrid gave away four points in the last two games and now sit one point ahead of Real Madrid in first place thanks to a 6-1 score against Rayo Vallecano. Lionel Messi managed to not only score one nor two, but three goals in today’s match, a record 24 hat-tricks in his career and also tied Cristiano Ronaldo for the most goals in the 2014/15 season, that being 30 goals in total. Luis Suarez also managed to score two goals to tally up his total to seven goals this season. Suarez has been on fire since finding the net back in the match against Athletic Bilbao and has since scored six goals in the past four matches. Gerard Pique also found the net to tally up to four goals in the season.
The first goal came in the first five minutes for Barcelona. A misplaced throw in from Rayo Vallecano and a bad header to clear the ball out, Jeremy Mathieu was able to get the rebound and pass it to Xavi Hernandez. Xavi then found Suarez on the outside of the box. Suarez got the pass and with the outside of his toes got it past Cristian Alvarez and into the top left of the net.
The rest of the first half was quiet but it took four minutes into the second half for Barcelona to be in the scoreboard once again. Xavi Hernandez once again helped with the goal as he crossed inside the box from a corner kick. Jordi Alba headed the ball only to see the ball hit the top of the post and Pique found the ball from the woodwork. Pique was able to control the ball with his chest and with three defenders along with the goalkeeper, was able to bury it to make it 2-0.
In the 54 minute, Barcelona was given a penalty when Jordi crossed it inside the box and as Suarez was going for the ball, was brought down by Tito and Tito was shown a red card right after the play. Lionel Messi stepped up to take the penalty but was denied the first time as goalkeeper Alvarez secured the ball but Lionel was given a second opportunity to take the penalty again.
On his second attempt, he was able to get it past the goalkeeper and make it 3-0.
From here everything went downhill for Rayo as Messi was able to score back to back goals. The next goal came in the 63 minute when Luis Suarez was able to have some beautiful ball control, make a whole 360 turn, shoot for goal but was denied by Alvarez. Messi was there though to secure the rebound and bury it to make it 4-0 and add a second goal to the sheet.
Lionel Messi was able to find the net once again in the 68 minute to add to his tally and get the hat-trick. Rafinha was able to find Pedro on the left side of the field and Pedro gave a low cross pass inside the box. Lionel Messi got the pass, did some beautiful dribbling as he took on two defenders and the goalkeeper and get inside the net to make it 5-0.
12 minutes later, Rayo was awarded a penalty when Dani Alves went for the ball inside the box but instead brought down Alberto Bueno. Alves was shown a straight red card and thus making him losing the next match along with Jordi Alba for acquiring too many yellow cards. Alberto Bueno stepped up to take the penalty and was able to get it past Claudio Bravo to make it 5-1.
Just as the game was coming to an end, Barcelona scored another goal with Luis Suarez finding the net for the second time. Suarez got a beautiful pass from Pedro who passed it to Xavi Hernandez. Xavi then found Messi just outside the box and Messi gave Luis Suarez time to make the run. As Suarez made the run, Messi passed it to him and Suarez was able to take the goalkeeper and bury the ball into the net to make it 6-1.
Barcelona looked phenomenal today as they destroyed Rayo 6-1 and were able to secure first place as they took advantage of Real Madrid’s loss against Bilbao the day before. The man of the match goes to no other than Lionel Messi who was able to get his 24 hat-trick of his career and the 30 goal of the season to tie with Ronaldo. FC Barcelona plays Eibar on Saturday while Rayo Vallecano take on Granada on Saturday as well.
Photo by: David Ramos/Getty Images
