Barcelona Destruction of Cordoba a Sweet End to a Miserable 2014

Luis Enrique has described being at Barcelona like being in Disneyland, and if that's the case, then we can say that 2014 has proved a real roller-coaster ride for the Catalan giants.

Beating Cordoba 5-0 to sign off their calendar year was the cherry on what turned out to be a rather underwhelming cake.

There was little to smile about at the turn of the year, as Barcelona wasted away in La Liga, giving Atletico Madrid the impetus, and eventually failed to beat them at home on the final day, resulting in a Rojiblanco title win.

It was Diego Simeone's well-drilled side that knocked Barcelona out of Europe in the Champions League quarter-finals, too.

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However, the most painful parts of last season, on the pitch at least, were the Copa del Rey final defeat by Real Madrid and then watching Los Blancos go on to lift the Champions League, finally achieving La Decima.

Neymar's contract proved a frustrating issue, too, with the fallout leading to the resignation of President Sandro Rosell while former coach Tito Vilanova lost his battle with cancer.

There were claims that Messi had lost his best form and complaints about Gerard Pique misbehaving, the worst incident seeing him rage at Barcelona's police force over a parking incident down by the beach area of the city in the early hours of the morning.

He was in and out of the side, with Enrique showing no mercy to the centre-back despite his status at the club.

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Both Messi and Pique sweetened the end of their respective years by scoring against Cordoba.

Both of Messi's strikes were with his right foot, something that he has clearly been working on to improve.

There were highs and lows for the Argentine in 2014, with the World Cup final defeat by Germany a bitter moment, but he dabbed at the wound with cotton wool by breaking the all-time La Liga goalscoring record and Raul's Champions League milestone.

His second goal against Cordoba was beautiful, a wonderful piece of ball control followed by a quick swivel and the ball dispatched in at the near post.

There was further redemption for Pedro Rodriguez and Luis Suarez. Neither of these players have been at their best this season.

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The former netted just one goal in 16 games before December although he now has six in his last six games.

He opened the scoring against Cordoba, latching onto Ivan Rakitic's through ball and rifling into the net before laying on Suarez's strike.

Suarez, meanwhile, had gone eight games in La Liga without finding the net. Scoring twice in the Champions League meant he wasn't too frustrated, but reaching the end of the year without finding the net in the league would have raised eyebrows.

After a troubled summer—his own doing after biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini—and four months out banned, at least now he's got that elusive goal, and nobody can point fingers at him.

So after a truly testing 12 months, Barcelona said goodnight to 2014 in the best way possible and will now be looking to make up for it in 2015.