Three great goals sink Mallorca (0-3)
FC Barcelona may have been without Valdés, Alves, Puyol and Xavi for the game in Mallorca, but they again demonstrated the depth in talent that Guardiola has at his disposal. Messi, Villa and Pedro were on target in the 3-0 win and Montoya made his first team debut.
Mallorca (FCB).- This always looked like a potentially tricky game for Barça against a Mallorca side who had taken a point from the Nou Camp earlier in the season, but despite going into it without five of his first team squad (Valdés, Alves, Puyol, Xavi and Jeffren) Guardiola was able to count on a great squad and a brilliant front three who got the goals to take the three valuable points.
The win leaves Barça on 68 points with an amazing 76 goals scored in 25 games.
Hosts look lively early on
Mallorca looked the brighter at the start of the game as Barça lined up with Iniesta filling Xavi’s role and Keita filling in for him on the left. Maybe it was the changes in personnel or maybe it was Mallorca’s pressure, but Barça were finding it tough to threaten their hosts’ goal, whilst Mallorca themselves were looking dangerous on the break.
Magical Messi
Gradually though, Guardiola’s team began to find their feet and Messi, with a shot over the top, and Adriano with an individual effort that ended in a cross which no one could latch onto gave notice of the leaders’ intentions. Inevitably it fell to the Argentinean to open the scoring when Keita lobbed a ball over the home defence and Messi was able to cleverly head over the approaching keeper.
Villa targets again
The second half saw Barça come out much more fired up and they controlled possession and pushed Mallorca back into their own area. A second was coming and it was David Villa who scored it, breaking the hosts’ offside trap to get on the end of a Busquets through ball, round the keeper and stroke the ball home to score in his fourth consecutive game.
Pedro gets the third
A few minutes later, Pedro scored an equally fine goal, firing home from outside the box with a shot that came off the Mallorca defender Nsue. At three up, the boss sent on Bojan and Afellay, as well as giving Montoya his first team debut. He’ll no doubt always remember it – a three nil win and confirmation of Barça’s spot at the top of the table.
THE DETAIL
The goals
0-1, Messi (min 38)
0-2, Villa (Min 57)
0-3, Pedro (min 66)