LIGA BBVA: Barcelona v/s Villareal : Match Report

Strengthening his credentials further, Neymar showed why he is rated so highly with two goals on either side of half time. No Lionel Messi? No problemo. Carrying on from where he left of in midweek with a hat-trick, he scored a brace to give the Blaugrana a 2-1 win over Villareal on Saturday.

To their credit, Villareal did everything possible to beat Barcelona at the Camp Nou. However, it just didn’t prove to be enough on that night. Alex Song got the ball rolling with Barca’s first chance of the night as early as the sixth minute when he chested the ball down and shot the post. The Villareal defense was as tight as ever in the first half but in the 29th minute they got a very harsh decision in the form of a contentious handball given to Mario Gaspar. Neymar showed no sympathy as he stuttered a bit before calmly placing the ball into the bottom left corner. Alexis Sanchez almost doubled the lead in the 41st minute but was denied by a fantastic save from Villareal keeper Sergio Asenjo.

The Villareal manager certainly must’ve given his players a dressing down at halftime as they rallied from a goal behind and no shots on goal to a goal just 3 minutes into the half. Stand in skipper Mateo Musacchio scored with a powerful header past Barca goalie Jose Pinto.

Enter Neymar. Barcelona went ahead with a beautiful move. Cesc Fabregas initiated the move with a splitting angled pass to Alexis Sanchez in the far post who controlled it with his chest and into the path of Neymar for an easy tap-in. Later on, he almost got another hat-trick. His match did end on a rather sad note though, with a booking in the 85th minute keeping him out of the next fixture against Getafe.

That’s five goals in the last four days now for the Brazilian wunderkid. Maybe he has come of age now?