4 things learned as Barcelona regain some form against Villarreal

Barcelona are the first side from La Liga’s top 10 to win in Villarreal this season

Barcelona cruised to an emphatic 4-1 victory against Villarreal at the daunting Estadio de la Ceramica to remain hot on the heels of Real Madrid. Luis Suarez, Antoine Griezmann, and Ansu Fati combined to get the job done along with an own goal from Pau Torres early on, as the Catalans reduced the deficit back to just four points.

It was an absolutely riveting encounter, kind of like the 4-4 draw last season, with both sides actively driving forward to take initiatives at goal. Even though the second stanza relatively cooled off, the visitors held on their own and comprehensively secured a vital win on the road.

The major talking points:

Frantic opening 20 minutes

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There was a lot riding on this one, with Barcelona looking to cut the gap after Madrid’s victory earlier in the day, while Villarreal was hoping to boost Champions League prospects. So neither side took any prisoners when the whistle went off. The Catalans pushed bodies forward relentlessly and Jordi Alba quickly got in behind Villarreal’s backline to force an own goal from Torres.

The Yellow Submarine mainly pressed them on the break, and one such amazing move on the 12th minute saw them draw parity as Santi Cazorla’s effort was parried by Marc-Andre ter Stegen into the path of Gerard Moreno, who made no mistake from 15 yards.

Almost immediately after, Suarez nearly restored the lead again, but Sergio Asenjo stuck his leg out to deny the Uruguayan. However, there was no stopping him when he brilliantly latched on to Messi’s pass down the left and executed an astounding curler into the far post to put Barca 2-1 up by 20 minutes.

‘MSG’ finally click into gear

This was arguably the best of the Messi-Suarez-Griezmann triumvirate we’ve seen this season, at least in La Liga. With the skipper deployed at the tip of the midfield diamond, the latter started up front in a two-pronged attack, but the interchangeability between the stars left Villarreal in the knots. The Frenchman dropped deep to get involved in the build-up, allowing Messi to drift ahead and set up Suarez, who was consistently stationed the farthest of the three.

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The Barcelona No.9 wreaked havoc down the left flank, while his exceptional in-swinger was just the icing on the cake. Once again performing his playmaker gig to perfection, Messi was crucial in unlocking the Yellow Submarine, and did so neatly for the second time when he drove defenders out of position and expertly laid a backheel pass for Griezmann to run into before turning in a sublime chip over Asenjo. Even though the intensity of the match watered down after the break, the amazing partnership between ‘MSG’ last night was surely a welcome sight for the fans.

Griezmann has a breather

For the first time in a long time, Le Petit Prince looked like his former self of Atletico Madrid. He was excellent last night and the performance would be a massive boost for the beleaguered star. His work rate was tremendous, he linked up with his attacking cohorts well, and to top it all off, he even got on the scoresheet – for the first time since the restart. That was only his ninth goal in the league this season, an unsatisfactory figure for someone of his ilk, but given his struggles since the switch to Catalonia, his strike in this match would do a world of good to Griezmann.

Asenjo packs a punch

Barring that well-worked counter-attacking goal in the first half, Villarreal offered little else going forward, and were rightfully made to pay for a sloppy performance. However, one player who didn’t deserve be on the losing side was ‘keeper Asenjo, who denied Barcelona on multiple occasions to keep the match from turning into a blow-out.

Even though there was nothing he could do about any of those four goals, he produced some crucial stops to prevent the visitors from scoring more. In total, Asenjo made nine saves on the night, and deservedly won the ‘king of the match’ prize.