Dembele stars in Barca rout

Ousmane Dembele bagged a brace as a dominant Barcelona demolished Villarreal 5-1 on Wednesday evening.

See how the match unfolded at Camp Nou with our liveblog!

Dembele scored twice in the last three minutes to wrap up a big win for Barca, with fellow January buy Philippe Coutinho also getting in on the act, as did Paulinho and Lionel Messi.

Ernesto Valverde rang the changes for the visit of Villarreal, who needed the points to secure European football next season and gave their opponents a guard of honour, but the Catalans had other ideas.

An electrifying first half of football saw the Blaugrana take a 3-0 lead, starting with Dembele waltzing past a couple of yellow shirts, before Coutinho mopped up the rebound from the Frenchman's shot, which stung the palms of Sergio Asenjo.

Just five minutes later, Paulinho netted his ninth goal of the season, tapping in from a yard out after Andres Iniesta, who had slipped Coutinho in behind.

It was a case of brilliance personified from Barca on the stroke half-time, when Messi twisted and turned in Villarreal's box and played a one-two with Iniesta, who then chipped the ball up for the No 10 to finish past Asenjo.

At the other end, the deck chairs were far from out for Jasper Cillessen, who had to push away two Pablo Fornals strikes, although he was ultimately wrong-footed by Nicola Sansone's deflection.

Barca coasted through the second half and added two more goals to their bow through Dembele, who tapped in after Ivan Rakitic had sensationally slalomed down the right-hand side, before the Frenchman lobbed Asenjo for another in stoppage time.

Barcelona 5-1 Villarreal

Coutinho 11, Paulinho 16, Messi 45, Dembele 87, 90 (B) Sansone 54 (V)

Barcelona: Cillessen; Semedo, Pique (Yerry Mina 81), Vermaelen, Digne; Paulinho, Busquets (Rakitic 65), Iniesta (Suarez 61); Coutinho, Messi, Dembele

Villarreal: Asenjo; Mario, Alvaro, Victor Ruiz, Jaume; Castillejo, Trigueros (Fuego 57), Fornals, Rodrigo, Cheryshev (Sansone 46); Bacca (Enes 70)

Referee: Sanchez Martinez

Tags Ousmane Dembele
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