Barcelona had arguably their finest away performance of the season as they hammered Villarreal 1-4 on Sunday night at the Estadio de la Ceramica.
Antoine Griezmann broke out of his slump with a goal and was joined on the scoresheet by Luis Suarez and Ansu Fati, plus a Pau Torres own goal. Not to be outdone was Lionel Messi, who contributed two assists in what was the most complete Barcelona performance seen in weeks.
After barely seeing any action midweek against Atletico Madrid, Griezmann returned to the starting XI to join Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi in attack, while youngster Riqui Puig was back on the bench.
Filling in for Riqui Puig in central midfield was Sergi Roberto, who made an instant impact by making a run that set the table for the opener. He made a move to the middle before dishing out wide left to Jordi Alba, who then crossed for Griezmann only to see Villarreal defender Pau Torres deflect the ball into his own net for a 0-1 Barcelona lead.
There was little from Villarreal in the early going, but then suddenly they landed a big blow by catching Barcelona on the break to pull even 1-1. A long ball was hoofed up field by Samu Chukwueze to Paco Alcacer, who crossed for Santi Cazorla and, after Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen blocked Cazorla's shot, Gerard Moreno was there to pounce and fire into net for the equaliser.
The visitors responded in short order after Messi did well to win a ball in midfield before shedding a pair of defenders and dishing Suarez, who one-timed a curling right-footed shot into the net to make it 1-2.
It could have easily been three for Barcelona after another well-executed move, but Arturo Vidal fired right at Villarreal goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo. That was followed by a chance for Suarez after a peach of a pull-back pass from Alba, but again Asenjo came up big.
Barcelona's football was flowing freely though, and the third goal came shortly before half-time when another precise build-up ended with Messi back-heeling to Griezmann and the Frenchman hitting the most delicate of chips over Asenjo and into goal for a 1-3 lead.
Setien's first two changes came on the hour mark, with Luis Suarez departing and Ivan Rakitic coming on, while Rique Puig replaced Nelson Semedo. Barcelona started cranking things back up again and Asenjo had to make a pair of saves within seconds to deny a bullet from Vidal and a shot from Alba.
Barcelona thought they had stretched their advantage to 1-4 when Messi connected off a Sergi Roberto pull-back pass, but VAR said that Vidal had been offside in the build-up, annulling La Pulga's strike, much to the chagrin of Gerard Pique.
Setien went back to his bench, this time opting for Ansu Fati and Martin Braithwaite for Griezmann and Sergio Busquets respectively.
As for the home side, they did little in the second half to trouble Ter Stegen as Barcelona remained in firm control, despite the multiple substitutions. There was a strong sense that a fourth Barcelona goal would come before the full-time whistle and Ansu Fati duly delivered by taking a long ball from Alba, cutting to his right and then firing near post for a 1-4 lead.
The only thing lacking was a Messi goal and it nearly came in stoppage time when he stung a free-kick off the crossbar. Asenjo made one final spectacular save, denying Braithwaite off the Messi rebound, but it did nothing to spoil Barcelona's fine outing, which pulls them back within four points of leaders Real Madrid in the table.
Source: Marca