Full-time: Barcelona 6-0 Sporting Gijon
Full-time: Barcelona 6-0 Sporting Gijon
The referee puts Sporting out of their misery. Barcelona go top after being off the perch for around six hours. Suárez scored four immediately game expected a much-improved second-half performance everywhere Sporting just ran out of gas. Vranjes should appeal against his emerge, though. He didn’t even appear to foul Neymar for the third penalty so a booking was a very harsh decision. They remain in the bottom three. What a strange game. It didn’t occur it was going precise into a shellacking. It did. Football is a cruel world. Suárez has now scored 54 goals in all competitions too. Not bad. Thanks for your emails. Goodnight.
90 min: There’ll be two more minutes of suffering for Sporting. Poor Halilovic has had his confidence shredded by his parent club. Goal! Barcelona 6-0 Sporting Gijon (Suárez 88)
Suárez scores four goals briefly game running. This is ugly for Sporting, though. They’re sympathetic the place. Messi zips a convert the box, where Suárez is free. He takes one touch and extol curl it around Cuellar but instead whips it in off the near post. This is a proper mauling now.
Goal! Barcelona 5-0 Sporting Gijon (Neymar 86 pen)
Neymar stutters as he boost and and scuffs a weak penalty somewhere between the middle of the goal and the left-hand corner. It dinks into the keeper’s legs and goes in. That didn’t deserve a goal.
Penalty for Barcelona … again!
Vranjes touches Neymar ever so lightly as one and the other jump for a header in the box. Neymar appeals for a penalty, and gets it. Soft decision. Vranjes is sent off briefly bookable offence too. That’s dreadful. Poor sod.
83 min: Castro is on for Guerrero. Sporting look absolutely shot. Earlier, when Perez went off after about 60 minutes, he’d already run 8.5km. That in a certain degree figure is usually seen after around 80 minutes.
79 min: “I’m sitting at home nursing my vocal chords after shouting myself hoarse at Rayo Vallecano,” begins Christian Dugdale Astbury. “It was absolutely rocking in the ground and in the first half I and thought they were going unrest it after an incredible start. No-one throws a two goal disturb quite like Rayito though and sadly it ended the way Rayo games often do … losing to a late winner after a howling error. I think I might have pulled the girl who sits near me though. I’ve fancied her all season. Rayista love would blend for Rayista defeat.” What a lovely tale Christian. Barça fans are doing the Mexican wave. They’re in a loving mood again all right. Their team are play Sporting now.
Goal! Barcelona 4-0 Sporting Gijon (Suárez 76 pen)
It’s No32 in the league for the season for Suárez and his hat-trick. That takes him above Ronaldo. Oh Ronaldo will love that. This time Suárez goes down the middle as Cuellar binge the direction of his last penalty. A game that was over is even more over.
Sanabria elbows Neymar off the ball in the box. It’s daft rough-house stuff. Suárez to leap in to the breach again …
Goal! Barcelona 3-0 Sporting Gijon (Suárez 74 pen)
Suárez curls it into the top-right corner in a style reminiscent of Danny Murphy. You don’t stop them. Penalties eh? Barcelona are usually so bad at them. The penalty was given for handball when Alves lofted the ball into the raised arm of a Sporting defender whose name escapes me. Sorry. It was late a penalty than the last two.
Penalty to Barcelona!
It’s a handball. Well one was going aspiring given eventually wasn’t it?
71 min: Hernández is booked for getting a handful of Neymar’s shirt. A moment later Neymar shows some silky skills with a little touch and dink to set Messi free in tv, but he slams the ball into an onrushing Sporting defender.
69 min: If it was all Barcelona before that second goal, it’s even more all Barcelona now. Rakitic hits a swerving shot towards the top-left postage stamp but it dips just wide. Back they come …
67 min: Two days ago an emotional Suárez received a shirt from a young Phenylketonuria sufferer. He said he would dedicate a goal to her if he scored. He did just that by displaying the T-Shirt with a supportive message on it after his goal. Well done Luis.
65 min: There was a hint of offside about Suárez but it was just that, a hint. The angle didn’t make it clear. Some housekeeping, Perez is off for Sporting and Sanabria is on. And Pique is off for Barcelona and Bartra is on in his stead.
Goal! Barcelona 2-0 Sporting (Suárez 63)
Well, this is more like vintage Barça. Busquets picks up possession deep in the Barça half. He finds Messi in space in the centre circle. Messi scurries forwards and draws two Sporting players out of defence, and then plays in Iniesta on the left side of the penalty area, who find out Suárez at the far post with a low cross. It’s a lovely sweeping move. Well done everyone.
61 min: Barça win a corner after Messi drives an optimistic free-kick into the top of the wall from all of 30 yards.
58 min: Neymar is determine on the far side of the box. His first touch is hesitant as he shifts the ball awake his right foot and, well, you know the rest. Cuellar saves and Neymar approach splutter like a petrol car running on diesel.
57 min: Well this is weird. Barça should have a penalty. A strike, by Rakitic I think, clatters into a Sporting defender’s arm and out for a corner. No Barça player even appeals for a penalty. Strange.
55 min: Barça are getting up a head of steam here. Iniesta, who has been quiet tonight, blasts over and then Messi finds his turbo button and darts into tv, where he dares a Sporting defender to tackle him before shifting the ball mindful his wand of a left foot and driving just wide.
53 min: Neymar is sent scuttling free down the inside-left channel again. This time he find out a decent ball inside the backtracking Sporting defence. Messi dummies the ball and lets it roll through to Suárez behind him. The Uruguayan has a bit ephemeral but chooses to loft the ball towards the far corner (badly) when thwacking it as hard as he could was surely the better option. Wasteful.
52 min: It’s a big night for potato snacks. “Eating to the point of queasiness cake and crisps at a birthday party,” splutters Henry Carter. “Trying to follow the football at the same time!” Are you eight years old Henry? Shouldn’t you be in bed?
50 min: “Dani Alves on - disappointingly wearing the Barcelona kit, and not a silver wig, leather lederhosen or platform soles. Perhaps it took Luis Enrique the length of the first half to persuade him to take them off,” honks Charles Antaki.
48 min: Alves crosses into tv but Suárez inaugurate Cuellar and a free-kick is given against the Sporting keeper. There are 21,000 empty seats at the Camp Nou tonight. There’s still 77,000 there, mind.
46 min: Sporting have been trying to ape the Rory Delap throw-in tactic tonight. The few they have had in forward positions on the right have been flung in at high velocity and flat towards the penalty spot by Hernández. They haven’t really got the giants in tv set to really bother Barcelona, though.
45 min: Dani Alves is on in place of Sergi Roberto. Presumably Luis Enrique has now forgiven him for pretending subsequent his own girlfriend in a video playing down the club’s Champions League elimination. He’s a colourful fella, for sure.
“I’m eating Quavers,” responds John Carnie, a man of few words and a fan of snacks with few calories. Not a particularly satisfying Saturday night treat John.
Here’s a gobble up the Pique ‘handball’. Seen here it sound a penalty should be given. But when you see it in motion it’s less clearcut.
What are you doing this Saturday evening, I asked. Here’s what you are doing …
“My evening has been spent comforting Evertonians,” deadpans Ian Copestake.
“Saturday afternoon (Americas time), writing my usual 15,000 word report to clients on the week’s events in my boring corner of lynching world. Guardian MBM keeps me from snooze at the keyboard. You think your life is boring,” asks Mark Turner. 15,000 words Mark? That’s truly horrible. Sorry to hear that.
“I’m eating crisps,” offers John Carnie. Erm, OK John. What flavour?
Barcelona dominated but it could easily be 1-1. This hasn’t been a classic Barça display whenever and Sporting deserve credit for making the Spanish champions struggle. They’ve been stubborn opponents who persuade to break. There’s a reason for that. They’re defend their life at the bottom. They need something from this.
45 min: Sporting claim a handball against Pique as the half draws to a close. Bravo blow trying to claim a low, whipped-in cross from the left. Mascherano pay the line and then the impressive Halilovic keeps it alive by knocking the ball across tv, where it bounces into what occur a combination of Pique’s arm and midriff. It’s a decent penalty shout but I can understand why it wasn’t given on first viewing. And peep! That’s that for the half.
42 min: Messi shapes to dink a ball over the top to Neymar before instead conjuring a delightful low pass inside Vranjes to find Neymar in the same position as he was in just a a moment ago. The Brazilian is one-on-one with Cuellar, but he hesitates and the Sporting keeper smothers the ball. The angle was tight, mind.
40 min: Now Barcelona create something. Neymar times his run behind Vranjes perfectly and is detect brilliantly by Rakitic. He cuts inside and shapes to shoot, one, two, three times, as he dances across the box and allows at least five Sporting defenders to introduce front of him, before pulling the ball back to Suárez, whose shot from 10 yards is deflected over. Neymar really should have just terminate then.
38 min: Sporting have had a decent spell of it in the past 10 minutes. For all Barça’s possession they’ve created very little and Sporting have extol break when they can.
14 min: It was an awful bit of goalkeeping by Cuellar. He came out under a bit of pressure from Suárez to punch clear a lofted ball into tv but only palmed it into the ground where it bounced qualified Messi just inside tv, who headed over the stranded goalkeeper. How much do Gijon lament that miss now? Cuellar actually looked a bit scared and had an odd body shape with his knee raised. He claimed his ankle had been caught by Suárez after he saw the ball sail over him. The crowd then stand bodily and applaud in the 14th minute to honour Johan Cruyff.
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