Barcelona vs. BATE Borisov: Winners and Losers from Champions League Game
Barcelona went clear at the top of Group E in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday night with a 3-0 win over BATE Borisov.
Neymar scored the opening goal of the game when he rolled home a penalty following a push on Munir, with the Catalan side dominating the first 45 minutes entirely and missing a couple of other chances to extend their lead.
Neymar rolled in Luis Suarez who scored the second eventually, while Suarez and Adriano both struck the outside of the post and BATE had a penalty shout of their own turned down. Neymar made it three late on from close range.
Here are our winners and losers from the match.
Winner: Neymar
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The excellent recent form of Neymar continued on Wednesday night, with the Brazilian showing up once again as Barcelona's creator-in-chief and goalscoring threat.
His penalty was rolled home with the utmost confidence and self-belief, not to mention composure, while throughout the first half, he fooled BATE's back line with no-look passes, reverse balls, lofted passes over the defence and other moments of ingenuity.
Neymar was involved, as you'd expect, in Barcelona's other goal, too, finding Luis Suarez with a square pass to claim yet another assist, before the duo swapped roles for goal No. 3.
Loser: Luis Enrique's Continuing Injury Problems in Midfield
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No sooner had he gotten Andres Iniesta back on to the pitch after a hamstring injury than Luis Enrique lost another midfielder to a muscle problem as Ivan Rakitic exited the match just a few minutes in.
The Croatian had barely touched the ball before going to ground in the opening stages of the game and was immediately replaced by Munir, with Sergi Roberto shifting infield from the right.
With tough games ahead, including against Villarreal and Real Madrid, Barcelona will be hoping Rakitic is only absent for a short period—and it was no surprise to see Luis Enrique make his other two changes protective ones for his midfielders, with Sergio Busquets and Iniesta the players replaced.
Winner: Luis Suarez
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Suarez, after netting the second goal of the night, now has nine goals in his last eight games for the Catalan club—excellent consistency in front of goal when his team has needed an alternative regular source in the absence of Leo Messi.
The Uruguayan showed a great link with Neymar throughout, each setting up the other for a goal but also combining several other times, including one audacious post-to-post one-two over the longer range, ending with Suarez striking the post.
Hard work, constant movement and good end product—a perfect centre-forward's display.
Losers: BATE, Close to a European Exit
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BATE sank to the bottom of Group E, not just with their defeat at the Camp Nou but also with AS Roma picking up a 3-2 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in the group's other game.
The team from Belarus will next up play their last home game, against the Germans, and know they need to come up with a positive result to leapfrog B04 into third place—which would bring with it a Europa League place, if they can hold on to it.
BATE were never in this game as a contest, though, and even though they had a reasonable penalty shout turned down, they never threatened Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the Barcelona goal.
Winners: Thomas Vermaelen and Adriano
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In rotating his side a little where he could, Luis Enrique gave chances in defence to both Thomas Vermaelen and Adriano, and barring one instance of poor judgement each, both players gave a good account of themselves.
It was Adriano who bundled his man over and could have conceded a penalty, but aside from, that he was positive with his running, created a couple of shooting chances in the first half and almost scored himself after a neat exchange with Neymar.
Vermaelen, meanwhile, missed a tackle inside the box early on—but soon bounced back and was largely impressive with his ability to step out and win the ball, a couple of aerial challenges and his passes from the back.
Neither will likely be in the team at the weekend, but play well when given the chance is all they can do to remind the boss they are there to be called upon when needed.
