Agence France-Presse
Barcelona, Feb 4: Luis Suarez scored four and Lionel Messi hit a hat-trick as Barcelona piled more misery on Gary Neville’s ill-fated reign as Valencia boss to take an unassailable 7-0 lead in their Copa del Rey semifinal, first leg here Wednesday.
Two fine finishes inside 12 minutes from Suarez put Barca in control before Messi rounded off a fine team move for Barca’s third.
It could have been even worse for Valencia as Neymar hit the post from the penalty spot after Shkodran Mustafi was sent-off for bringing down Messi inside the area.
However, Messi and Suarez both added two more after the break to make next week’s second leg at the Mestalla a mere formality.
“It is one the best games we have played all season in every sense,” Suarez told ‘Canal Plus’. “From the first minute to the last we showed a great attitude, we were good on the ball and we had a good advantage.”
The Cup had been Neville’s one refuge during a winless run of eight league games since taking charge in December, but Valencia were blown away by a Barca side back to their best. However, Neville insisted he wasn’t prepared to resign just two months after taking charge.
“I won’t sleep well tonight (Wednesday). I didn’t like what I saw. The fans didn’t deserve that and we have to recover incredibly quickly,” said the former Manchester United
captain.
In spite of legal hassles, Neymar’s performance was not affected as he drove at the Valencia defence before playing in Suarez to fire across Australian international Matt Ryan into the far corner for the opening strike.
Aleix Vidal then cut-back Sergio Busquets’s ball over the top of the Valencia defence for Suarez to slam home his 33rd goal of the season five minutes later.
Messi was left with the simple task of slotting in his first of the evening from close range after great work by Andres Iniesta and Suarez just before the half-hour mark.
Gerard Pique, Busquets and Messi all fired just off target as Barca continued to run riot after the break. Then Messi latched onto Suarez’s lovely back-heel to make it 4-0 and then completed his hat-trick with a fierce effort that Ryan was disappointed to see slip through his grasp.
