A Neymar double, a spectacular volley from Luis Suárez and a goal for Lionel Messi enabled Barcelona’s unstoppable strike force to sweep aside Real Sociedad 4-0 on Saturday and extend their lead at the top of La Liga to seven points, at least for a few hours.
Neymar slotted home a Dani Alves cross after 22 minutes and Alves was again the provider for Suárez who acrobatically beat the Real keeper Geronimo Rulli before half-time to take his tally to 11 goals in seven games.
La Liga’s top scorer Neymar took his total to 14 as he knocked in a Jérémy Mathieu cross after 53 minutes and in injury time he set up Messi to score from close range.
Barça have 33 points from 13 games, with Atlético Madrid, who face Espanyol later, on 26 points. Real Madrid, who were hammered 4-0 by Barça last Saturday and are now nine points off the pace, play Eibar on Sunday.
Astonishingly, the trio’s latest heroics meant that Messi, Neymar and Suárez have so far scored 125 goals between them in all competitions for Barça over the calendar year.
“Between them, they look for each other all the time and the objective is for them to be happy which happens when they score,” said Alves.
Suárez could have put Barça ahead within three minutes as he went through on goal but Rulli got down well to block his shot and the Real keeper had to be alert again to take the ball off the feet of Neymar, who tried to go around him.
Andrés Iniesta was close to scoring with a rare header from a Suárez cross but the ball came back off the left post.
The Sociedad coach, Eusebio Sacristán, who replaced David Moyes earlier this month, won his first game in charge against Sevilla. Yet despite his knowledge of Barça as a former player, assistant and youth team coach he was unable to do anything to head off his side’s 19th straight defeat at the Camp Nou.
Alves crossed for Neymar to slam the ball into the roof of the net with his left foot and with Barça continuing to press, it was Alves again, having been found by a raking pass from Iniesta, who sent a deep cross for Suárez to volley home.
With Barça comfortably in charge and the Real defence stretched, Neymar notched his second before Messi scored in the final moments, having hit the crossbar with a strike from the edge of the area minutes earlier.
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