Barca hit eight in Depor rout

The ‘MSN’ were all on song as Barcelona resoundingly regained their grip on first place in La Liga with an 8-0 hammering of Deportivo La Coruna on Wednesday.

Pique’s accumulation of 10 yellow cards for the season against Valencia last Sunday resulted in a rare opportunity for Marc Bartra in Barca’s starting XI as Dani Alves also returned to the side in place of Sergi Roberto.

Desperate to put their run of three defeats behind them and restore their grip on La Liga, Suarez followed up two early sights of goal with a successful one on just 11 minutes as he tapped in from a yard out after a simple corner was whipped towards the near post.

However, Barca were made to sweat for their lead when a ball was played over the top of their centre-backs and taken down by Borges, with the goal at his mercy, but the Costa Rican’s flicked finish was weak and Claudio Bravo made the save.

Borges was then presented with another glorious opportunity as he found himself one-on-one with Bravo in the penalty area and only had to round the goalkeeper for 1-1, but the Chilean spread himself just enough to push the ball away from under his midfielder, Oriol Riera then chipping the rebound over the crossbar.

The Catalans unsurprisingly made their opponents pay for their profligacy – and in some style, too – as Lionel Messi’s deft flick in the Depor D opened the floodgates for Suarez to poke a finish past Manu Fernandez.

Suarez could’ve ended the first half on a hat-trick a few minutes later, when a first-time move saw a long ball played to Dani Alves to the right of Manu's goal and the full-back not taking a touch when he returned it for the No 9 for finish off from point-blank range, but the Uruguayan couldn’t get his feet in order quickly enough and only shinned his finish wide.

Barely a ball had been kicked in the restart, yet Suarez dug out a pinpoint cross at the far post for the late run of Ivan Rakitic, who blasted the ball past Manu from close range.

Suarez then grabbed his hat-trick from Messi’s through ball, which he sent through his opponent’s legs, before moving to within one goal of Cristiano Ronaldo in the Pichichi stakes as he swept up Neymar’s pullback in the penalty area.

That wasn’t to say Depor were without their chances, however, as Lucas Perez followed up a vicious volley in the box – which Bravo pushed away – with a ballooned finish, despite being unmarked in the penalty area when meeting Laure’s low cross.

Nonetheless, Suarez – while having finished for the evening on the scoring front – turned to assisting for his fellow attackers as he effortlessly cut the ball back for Messi roll in for 6-0.

Jonas Gutierrez provided Depor some minor relief from the Barca onslaught with a misguided free header from a cross at the right-hand byline, but Bartra responded by racing into the hosts’ box and pulled a finish into the bottom-left corner of Manu for an ‘MSN’-esque finish.

With the points long in the bag, Barca did their utmost to help Neymar end his mini-drought in front of goal, and they did just that as the Brazilian kissed the ball into an empty net for the Catalans’ biggest victory of the season at a crucial point in the season.

Deportivo La Coruna 0-8 Barcelona

Suarez 11, 24, 53, 64, Rakitic 47, Messi 79, Neymar 81

Deportivo La Coruna: Manu; Laure, Sidnei, Navarro (Fajr 58), Juanfran; Bergantinos, Mosquera, Borges (Jonas 70); Cani (Cartabia 59); Riera, Lucas

Barcelona: Bravo; Alves, Bartra, Mascherano, Alba (Adriano 70); Busquets (Rafinha 71), Rakitic, Iniesta (Sergi 59); Messi, Suarez, Neymar

Referee: De Burgos Bengoetxea

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