Scintillating first-half does the job for Barcelona in Budapest

Barcelona travelled to Budapest to face Ferencvaros in quite a comfortable position, having won four out of four and sitting pretty at the top of their group.

Ronald Koeman actually left behind Lionel Messi, Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Philippe Coutinho to rest before they face Cadiz this coming weekend, offering an opportunity for some of the Blaugrana’s lesser lights to shine in the Champions League.

Given that Barcelona have already qualified for the last 16 of the competition and were facing a side in Ferencvaros who they’d expect to beat, it seemed a fair gamble.

Koeman’s decision was a good one. Barcelona eased to a 3-0 victory over their Hungarian hosts thanks to a scintillating first-half performance where they scored three quick-fire goals.

Less than quarter of an hour into the game Barcelona had their lead through Antoine Griezmann. A slick team move saw Jordi Alba and Ousmane Dembele combine excellently down the left side before Griezmann was on hand to finish the attack with calm and confidence.

Then, on the 20 minute mark, the Catalans doubled their advantage. Once again Dembele did sterling work down the left wing before centring for Martin Braithwaite, who had taken up an excellent position, to finish.

Just before the clock hit 30 minutes, Barcelona had made it three, with Dembele, who was terrorising the Ferencvaros defence, getting his name on the scoresheet. The French winger’s penalty was well struck, low and to the left, and sealed an excellent night’s work for the Blaugrana.

Featured image courtesy of FC Barcelona.

Tags Barcelona Champions League Ousmane Dembele
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