gijón

FC Barcelona overcame the absence of Leo Mesi and secured the win at Sporting Gijón on Saturday. The Argentine is going to be out for three weeks but was not missed, as the Barça team scored five away from home for the second week in a row. Luis Suárez, Rafinha, Neymar (2) and Arda Turan were the scorers of the goals that allowed FC Barcelona to achieve victory, three of them coming in the last 10 minutes. After the midweek draw with Atlético de Madrid, Luis Enrique made five changes to the starting eleven. One of those was Rafinha, who started in place of Messi. The Brazilian justified his election when, on 32 minutes, he scored the second goal.

It's finally time to play that game in hand, which offers the chance to move six points clear at the top of the Liga table. FC Barcelona travel to Gijón to play the game originally postponed due to their participation at the Club World Cup in Japan. It’s now thirty games that Barça have strung together without losing, the longest unbeaten run in the history of Spanish football. We need to go all the way back to October 1994 to find the last case of a Sporting victory over Barça. Gijón is the town where Barça’s coach Luis Enrique grew up and Sporting is a club that shall forever be close to his heart. “Whenever I go back to El Molinón, it's special” he said on Tuesday. “But tomorrow I'm going back as a coach and I want to win” he stated. The Barça boss and Sporting’s coach, Abelardo Fernández have known each other since school, and the latter also spent part of his playing career at FC Barcelona.

Barça put in a gritty performance to see off an ultra defensive Sporting team despite playing most of the second half with ten men after Piqué was sent off. Late goals from Keita and Xavi sealed the win after Iniesta had opened the scoring in the first half.

After their hard won win in Gijón, FC Barcelona top the Spanish League. If we look back over the last few years, Guardiola’s team have certainly got the experience to stay up there.

An early goal from Adriano gave Guardiola’s men the three points in Gijón which take them to the top of the Spanish League’s table for the first time this season. On the negative side, Abidal was forced off with an injury.

FC Barcelona picked up a valuable point at El Molinón thanks to a beautiful finish from Villa just ten minutes from the end. Barça had trailed for the whole game after Barral’s early opener.

Barça's coach has given his first press conference since extending his contract by one more season and used the occasion to speak about motivation. “The day I lose my passion and strength, I’ll leave” he said.