Barcelona 4-0 PSV: Match Report
A Messi Hat-Trick and a beautiful solo goal from Ousmane Dembele helped the Catalans to continue their unbeaten streak of 27 games at home in the Champions League.
The Dutch champions started the match with a positive note but soon fell to the mastery of Barcelona. Messi opened the scoreline with an emphatic free-kick at the 32nd minute. The curler went up above the PSV wall into the top corner away from the reach of the goalkeeper.
The Dutch supporters were really hoping of a comeback after the first half was over with only one goal. To add to their grief, Dembele came up with a beautiful piece of dribbling to beat three players as well as the goalkeeper with a well-placed curling effort from outside the box on the 75th minute.
Barcelona were two goals up and quite comfortable, but they did not stop attacking. The attackers were relentless in their work and made the life of the defenders hard. Another goal came in from Messi in the 77th minute, just two minutes after the Dembele goal, a nice over the top pass from Ivan Rakitic and Leo made no mistake to send that ball into the back of the net.
Another goal came in the 87th minute with a nice pass from Luis Suarez to find Messi, and he made sure that he was taking the match ball home. This goal came in even when Barcelona were reduced to ten men.
Umtiti was sent off after getting a second yellow trying to stop a breakout. This might worry the Catalan coach a little as he will be suspended for the away match against PSV.
While the goalkeeper had a very pleasant outing as the opposition could only manage one shot on target. Barcelona dominated the game with 76% of possession and 91% passing accuracy.
Barcelona has started their Champions League campaign on a strong note. Scoring four, conceding none, it is starting to look like they are definitely going to be a force to be reckoned with this season.