Girona 0 Barcelona 2: Lionel Messi strikes again as Barca extend LaLiga title lead

1/19
Tom Doyle27 January 2019

Goals from Lionel Messi and Nelson Semedo ensured Barcelona beat Girona 2-0 to restore their five-point advantage at the top of LaLiga on Sunday.

Atletico Madrid closed the gap on table-toppers Barca to two points with a 2-0 win over Getafe on Saturday, but Barca made light work of Girona in Catalonia on a rain-swept afternoon at Girona's Montilivi stadium after LaLiga's ambitious plan to stage the game in Miami fell through.

Semedo smashed home the opener nine minutes into the contest after Girona failed to clear their lines to send Barca into the break with a one-goal advantage.

Barca have not been at their best without Messi this season, and the club's talisman once again proved his importance to Ernesto Valverde's side with the second goal after the break.

Girona had defender Bernardo Espinosa sent off in the 51st minute for a second booking, and their hopes of getting back in the game were dealt a fatal blow by La Liga's top scorer Messi.

With 21 minutes remaining, Luis Suarez released Jordi Alba through the Girona defence wide on the left.

REUTERS

Alba continued his fine partnership with Messi by sliding the ball into space for Barca's No.10, who took a touch before lofting a lovely chipped finish past goalkeeper Bono into the net for his 18th league goal of the season.

The strike means Messi has now scored at every LaLiga ground he has played at, with the Argentine still to visit Huesca later in the campaign.

REUTERS

The result sees Barca once again sitting five points ahead of nearest rivals Atletico with 17 games of the 2018-19 season remaining.

Additional reporting by Reuters.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in