Watch highlights of Barcelona’s thumping La Liga victory on their travels at Deportivo.
For a team who were supposed to be in a state of crisis seven days ago, Barcelona haven’t had a bad week – following their La Liga win over title rivals Atletico Madrid last weekend and Cope del Rey evisceration of Elche, Luis Enrique’s side backed those victories with another comfortable triumph at strugglers Deportivo La Coruna.
Having left all of his star turns out of the midweek second leg away at Elche, that his side still won 4-0, Enrique brought the big guns back into the line up at the Riazor on Sunday night, but it was one man in particular who came to the fore.
Lionel Messi opened the scoring for Barcelona after just 11 mins, guiding a fine header beyond the Deportivo goalkeeper into the far corner after a glorious Ivan Rakitic pass.
Struggling Deportivo couldn’t live with the movement of Messi, playing in a free role off Luis Suarez, and he doubled the lead with a cheeky dink over helpless goalkeeper Fabricio.
Barcelona went in two goals to the good at the break and extended their lead in the second half, with Messi completing yet another hat-trick, firing home after a clever short corner routine.
Poor old Deportivo were up against it enough without gifting goals to Barcelona, but the La Coruna club added to their own downfall with the late fourth, that was deflected past his own goalkeeper by centre back Sidnei.
The result means that Barca keep up the heat on leaders Real Madrid, who won at Getafe earlier in the day, whilst it also relieves some of the pressure on manager Luis Enrique.