Barcelona 3-1 Leganes: 3 things Barca did right
FC Barcelona cruised to a 3-1 win over Leganes last night courtesy of a majestic Lionel Messi hattrick. He opened his account with a sumptuous freekick to register his sixth goal from a dead ball situation in this calendar year. Messi doubled Barcelona's lead five minutes later to give his side a 2-0 lead at the break.
Leganes pulled one back through Nabil El Zhar but it was Messi who scored again and made sure that the Catalans continued their winning streak in all competitions. The league leaders have now gone 38 games unbeaten in La Liga and need just one more to achieve the all-time record.
So without wasting further detail, let's analyze this game from Barcelona's point of view and discuss the three things that the winning side did right on the night:
#3 Perfect service to Lionel Messi
It was Messi who stole all the limelight in this win courtesy of three well-taken goals. Keeping his free-kick aside, his other two goals came because of two quality passes.
For the second goal, Coutinho played Messi on by carving out a through ball and taking the entire Leganes defence out of the equation. It was a brilliant pass and was the Brazilian's first assist to Messi since he came to these shores.
For the third goal, Dembele combined with Messi to create an opening which enabled Barcelona to score the all-important third goal. Both Coutinho and Dembele played to Messi's strengths and delivered him the perfect service to score his goals.