0′ – Kickoff at Camp Nou. It’s an outright downpour tonight as Barcelona is going left to right in their red and blue stripes. Atlético wearing their white and red stripes.
3′ – Barça seems to be falling into a 3-1-3-3 formation, with Busquets roaming back near the back line to clear up any trouble before it actually turns into a problem.
4′ – Atlético hit the post! Tiago got a pass from Reyes 20 yards from the goal, and sent a flying curler off his right foot past a motionless Valdes. Barça dodges a bullet early.
9′ – Goal Barcelona! A brilliant show by Xavi and Villa. Xavi clips a perfect lob pass across the pitch, left to right to Villa who skates into the box, jukes a defender and snaps a shot under the keepers arm for the first goal of the match. Barcelona 1-0
13′ – Pedro misses a great chance in front of goal as Atlético is getting short-passed to death early on. Pedro took a long Xavi cross down just five yards from the left post and curled it just outside the opposite post. Nearly 2-0 for Barça.
15′ – Goal Barcelona! Atlético defender Miranda gets caught with an embarrassing own goal just six minutes after Barça took the lead. Messi darted into the box, fired a shot that was saved by Courtois, only to hit Miranda nearby and fall back into the net. That seems like it could be a theme tonight… Barcelona 2-0
24′ – Atlético finally crosses the midfield line, and they don’t seem to have lost much of their energy just yet. Falcao seems intent on pressing down the field as quickly as possible to take advantage of the limited opportunities that he will get in the match.
26′ – Goal Barcelona! Lionel Messi shows why he is the best player in the world with a fantastic goal. Messi took a short corner from Pedro, got past one defender, then bewildered two more at the corner of the box and the smashed a blazing curler past the Atlético keeper. There wasn’t much room for that shot to get through, but somehow it did. And it curled around the post too. Absolutely awesome. Barcelona 3-0
30′ – Through 210 minutes of La Liga football at Camp Nou, the score is Barcelona 16, Everyone Else 0.
35′ – Pass, pass, pass, lob, scramble, pass, pass, pass. All to easy for the Catalans, and they’re not even trying. They haven’t even broken a sweat. Well, you can’t really tell with the downpour, but that’s what we think.
41′ – Almost a moment of brilliance from Cesc. He stood 25 yards out and chipped one high above the keeper’s head and it skimmed off the top of the crossbar and out of bounds. Five inches lower and Barça would’ve had a 4-0 lead at the break.
45′ – Haltime at Camp Nou, Barcelona leads 3-0. The Catalans have had a mere 71 percent of possession thus far. Not bad, some might venture to say. All too easy, without much effort. Don’t think Atlético stands much of a chance with the field conditions and the… Well… Opposite team playing like they are.
46′ – Underway again at Camp Nou for the second half. Atlético subs in Turan for Suarez in a forward position.
48′ – Turan’s cross flashes right in front of goal and presents Victor Valdes with his first scare in the last hour. Promising start to the second phase for Atlético.
54′ – A fabulous feed from Fábregas gives Messi a shot at goal, but Courtois denies him with a great save just five yards out. Before the corner, Gerard Piqué enters the match for Sergio Busquets to a rousing ovation from the audience at Camp Nou. Piqué is about to get his first La Liga action of the year.
67′ – Xavi’s chip passes keep pounding away at the Atlético defense. He seems to be able to find little dimples in their defense and keeps plopping the ball into the perfect spot where Villa, Messi, and Pedro await. On this occasion, Xavi’s chip to Messi who relayed to Villa in front of the goal almost led to another goal, but Courtois came out to make a drastic save on Villa’s effort.
70′ – (See 35′)
71′ – Piqué is handed a yellow card for his hard challenge on Falcao. It looked like Piqué still got to the ball first…
78′ – Goal Barcelona! Terrifying goal by Leo Messi. His second of the match, Messi picked up the ball some 40 yards from goal and skipped his way to the edge of the box where he nailed a low driver with his left foot past a mortified Courtois in goal. How do you stop that? The answer is that you can’t. Terrifying. He’s also 24 years old. He’s not even old enough to rent a car in the United States. Barcelona 4-0
81′ – Maxwell comes in for Abidal on the Barça defense.
84′ – Atlético almost gets on the board as a Turan faked out Valdes who went sprawling. Turan dabbled a pass to Gabi who spanked a rocket past the post by just a foot. Almost a goal. So close!
89′ – For what it’s worth, Atlético has 37 percent of possession in the second half. That’s good against Barcelona. 37 percent! Ridiculous statistic.
90+1′ – Goal Barcelona! Messi has another hat trick, wow. The Argentine picked up the ball on the left flank, played a give and go with David Villa in the center, and then smashed a shot right through the wickets of Courtois and into the far corner. His second hat trick in three matches. I guess there is a reason why he’s the best in the world. Barcelona 5-0
(In other news: Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat trick against Rayo Vallecano earlier today)
90+3′ – Final whistle at Camp Nou. It wasn’t pretty for Atlético, and it wasn’t hard enough for Barça. It was a slaughter from start to finish and Barça barely broke a sweat. This is a pretty good visiting side, too. More to come in the complete game recap.
Disciple of Messi 