Malaga 0-2 Barcelona: 5 Talking Points

Barcelona are one step closer to winning the La Liga title after their comfortable win over Malaga last night. Goals from Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho ensured the Blaugrana will remain eight points clear of Atletico Madrid if Los Rojiblancos win their game in hand.

Heading into the tie, Barca were always the favourites against a Malaga side who have collected just 13 points in the league so far. It took just 15 minutes for Jordi Alba to find Suarez inside the box who did no mistake and guided his header into the back of the net. Barcelona’s two most expensive signings then combined for the second goal of the game.

Dembele did well to find Coutinho from the right and the former Liverpool star cleverly flicked the ball past with Roberto to make it two.

Here are the talking points from the game…

#5 No Messi, no problem

Lionel Messi and Barcelona’s announcement took the social media by storm. Messi and Antonella Roccuzzo announced the birth of their third son, Ciro, and the star was left out of his side’s clash against Malaga.

It was perhaps the perfect timing as Malaga have been pretty abject this season. Barcelona’s squad depth is pretty scary and that came to the fore. Dembele, the man who replaced Messi, arguably put his best performance in a Barcelona shirt and he assisted the team’s second goal of the night.

Messi has played quite a lot of games and though no one comes close to him in terms of his creativity barring Andres Iniesta, Dembele’s provided the directness and his quick feet helped him complete five dribbles on the night. A pretty impressive display!