Messi and Fabregas shine as Barcelona beat Santos 8-0

Barcelona celebrate after their win in the Joan Gamper Trophy

Argentine great Lionel Messi and Spanish star Cesc Fabregas shone in an 8-0 thrashing of Santos by Barcelona.

The game was being played at the Nou Camp for the Joan Gamper Trophy, in Barcelona’s preparations for the upcoming season.

Brazilian striker Neymar who was bought for a whopping £48.6million, was left on the bench at the start, as was Fabregas. But Fabregas scored twice in the second half when he was brought on, in what was an impressive display of attacking football.

Alexis Sanchez, Pedro and Lionel Messi scored in the first half and there was an own goal from the Santos team making it four goals to nil. Fortunes didn’t change for Santos in the second half when Adriano and Jean Marie Dongou along with Fabregas’s twin strikes created the final scoreline.

According to the the Dailymail, fans were overjoyed with this performance from their side raising expectations of what was to come in the season ahead. This was also a perfect start for their newly appointed manager Tata Martino who could not have asked for a better start.

Messi provided the initial spark with a clean finish in the eighth minute of the game, and immediately after that, Dani Alves’s powerful cross was pushed into his own goal by Leo, the defender of the Santos team.

Messi played part in the next goal as well when he set up Chilean winger Sanchez, before Pedro in a relaxed manner was able to  finish off a Jordi Alba cut-back.

There was an incident when Neymar was first brought on to the pitch, when a fan in a Santos team jersey ran on to the ground in an attempt to confront him. But authorities were able to get him off the pitch early to get on with the game.

Barcelona didn’t look back after their strong start and finished off the match splendidly to end a great outing for them.