La Liga 2016/17: Barcelona 6-1 Sporting Gijon, 5 talking points
Barcelona thumped Sporting Gijon 6-1 at Nou Camp to keep up the pressure on Real Madrid at the top of La Liga. Goals from Lionel Messi and an own goal from Juan Rodriguez gave Barcelona a 2-0 lead after just 10 minutes before Carlos Castro pegged one back for the visitors. Luis Suarez scored a brilliant volley right at the start of the second half to restore their two-goal advantage over Sporting.
A free-flowing second half saw Paco Alcacer, Neymar and Ivan Rakitic get on the scoresheet as well for the Catalans as Barcelona ended up securing all three points with ease. The Catalans are now one point ahead of their closest rivals, Real Madrid and are all set to mount a serious title challenge which may go down the wire. Coming back to the game, let's take a look at the five talking points from Barcelona's spectacular victory over Sporting Gijon:
#1 The victory that lost all its sheen in the post-match press conference
Luis Enrique announced after the win over Sporting Gijon that he will leave Nou Camp at the end of the season. His future speculations had been discussed a lot recently after Barcelona's 4-0 loss at the hands of PSG but this was a sudden announcement from the quintuple winning manager. Enrique's contract was going to expire in the summer but the club hierarchy had made it clear that they wanted him to sign an extension.
The 46-year-old won eight trophies in his stint with Barcelona and has a chance to add at least two trophies in his last three months reign at the club.
The players had looked a bit lost at times this season due to the manager's tactics with the team's growth being stagnated under Enrique despite the manager spending big in the summer leading up to this season. Enrique's decision can be said to be in the best interest of both the parties as the club will now get ample time to search for his successor while the manager will not have the tension of getting sacked over his head.