Barcelona 4 Granada 0
BARCELONA // Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick and Neymar got a goal, while Arda Turan, Luis Suarez and Neymar provided assists as Barcelona beat struggling Granada 4-0 to go back top of the Primera Liga.
The visitors, who were beaten 4-0 by Valencia in the Copa del Rey midweek, are fighting to stay up, the Catalans are top of the world.
They will send what has become an annual delegation to Zurich for Monday’s Ballon d’Or awards, with Messi and Neymar finalists alongside Cristiano Ronaldo.
Daniel Alves and Andres Iniesta will also travel to Switzerland by private plane for a ceremony that will be televised for seven laborious hours by Barca TV.
They are expected to be named in the FIFPro world XI of the world’s best players in their position for 2015.
Barca frontmen tend to make the headlines, but Gerard Pique has dominated Spanish headlines after a series of social media spats – which to his mind he has every right to be involved in. Barca fans also support his stance, be it by asking pertinent questions of Real Madrid or Espanyol.
When Barca took to the field against Granada, they did so to a backdrop of pro Pique chants and a “We are all Pique” flag behind one goal.
Pique has become a leading protagonist in Barca’s proxy wars against Madrid and Espanyol. An intelligent man and one of football’s most cerebral thinkers, he is confident enough in his own opinions to express them.
Read more
Who should win the Ballon d’Or? Our writers compare the candidates
If someone abuses his girlfriend Shakira, or their son Milan, as Espanyol fans did in 2014, then he stands up for himself. He did that again this week after another ill-tempered Catalan derby.
A third meeting between the two teams in 10 games will take place at Cornella on Wednesday, but after Barca’s 4-1 drubbing of Espanyol on Wednesday, Pique said of his side’s neighbours: “They brand themselves a wonderful minority, but I hope they’re not such a minority as they were [on Saturday] that they can’t fill their stadium. We’ll see if they can fill it [for the second leg].”
Outraged Espanyol fans are now buying tickets for the game and hope to have their first 30,000-plus crowd at their 40,000 home this season.
Pique is acting as their greatest marketing tool, though Espanyol spokesman Rafael Entrena felt Pique had gone “over the line too many times”.
If footballers are not supposed to hold similar opinions to the fans who pay their wages, opinions based on hard facts, then Entrena is right.
But if we want footballers to communicate intelligently and not via cliches, then he is wrong.
It is ludicrous that some think that Pique’s comments incite violence. He is defending himself against attackers.
In pictures
All the action from Barcelona’s 4-0 drubbing of Granada
When Pique gently chides Madrid on social media, he does so because he is a Barcelona fan and a proud Catalan, but too many people think footballers should keep their mouths shut.
Pique is feeling the heat, but remains unrepentant.
Against Granada, there was the added twist of him playing in a game where referee Velasco Carballo had sent him off twice in recent years, the most recent in the 2015 Spanish Super Cup which led to Pique missing four matches. Carballo also sent the defender off in 2012, with the Pique saying the decision was premeditated.
There were no such problems against Granada, with Pique enjoying one of his easier games. His side were ahead after seven minutes through Turan, who has settled well into the team after his midweek debut.
The Turk crossed towards Messi and, after Suarez had dummied around the ball, the Argentine, who had been played onside by Cristiano Biraghi, side-footed past goalkeeper Andres Fernandez.
Barca were 2-0 up seven minutes later, again from a cross from the left, this time from Neymar towards Suarez. The Uruguayan played the ball across the goal towards Messi, who had an easy finish.
Messi made it three 12 minutes into the second half, converting a Neymar shot which had bounced back off the post.
The Brazilian did get on the scoresheet for his 15th league goal of the season seven minuets from time, finishing a cross from Suarez as Barcelona again dominated play in their opponents’ box.
They will be hoping to dominate the awards in Zurich on Monday evening.
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport
