Barcelona moved a step closer to regaining the La Liga title by recording a 3-0 victory from their trip to Real Zaragoza this evening.
Midfielder Thiago Alcantara opened the scoring during the first half, before a brace of strikes from 21-year-old Cristian Tello sealed the outcome for the champions elect.
Sports Mole has looked back over the encounter to determine if the scoreline flattered the Catalan side in any way.
Match statistics:
Zaragoza:
Shots 11
On target 2
Possession 33%
Corners 2
Fouls 15
Barcelona:
Shots 10
On target 6
Possession 67%
Corners 7
Fouls 15
Was the result fair?
It's very rare that when the winning margin is this big, the losing team can feel hard done by and today is no different. Barcelona may have been missing a few players, but they were too sharp for their hosts throughout the entire 90 minutes.
Zaragoza's performance
Granted they were playing against a very good side, but Zaragoza will be disappointed with their display. To get anything out of Barca you need to work hard and close them down, but there was very little of that from the home players. Consequently, they were dragged around the pitch and were even made to look a little silly at times.
Barcelona's performance
When the starting lineups showed that the likes of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Jordi Alba were absent, you could have been forgiven for thinking that Barcelona may have struggled today. Quite simply, though, that wasn't the case. It took them 10 minutes or so to settle, but once they did, some of the football that they played was a delight to watch. Perhaps they could have scored more, but Tito Vilanova will not be too concerned by that.
Sports Mole's man of the match
Crisitan Tello: With a number of key players absent, a few squad players were given the chance to shine for Barcelona today. Tello took on the challenge and shone from the first whistle until the last. He scored two goals and was a constant menace to the Zaragoza defence.
Biggest gaffe
When facing a player with pace such as Tello, the last thing you want to do is to try and defend him square-on. That is exactly what Glenn Loovens did inside his own area, which resulted in the 21-year-old skipping by him like he wasn't even there, before rolling the ball into the net.
Referee performance
Whenever Barcelona play, you know that the opposition are going to commit a number of fouls. Where David Fernandez did very well was unlike some of his compatriots, he didn't book every Zaragoza play that was late in the challenge. He took on board that some were genuine attempts to play the ball, which was pleasing to see.
What next?
Zaragoza: A week on Monday Zaragoza will continue their quest for La Liga survival away at Celta Vigo.
Barcelona: The Catalans return to home comforts next Saturday when Levante make the trip to Camp Nou.
Liam Apicella
