Barcelona bounced back from defeat to Real Madrid in el Clasico and an embarrassing week of Super League news to get their title challenge back on track with a 5-2 victory over Getafe.
While the club may be in all sorts of PR and financial turmoil, Ronald Koeman’s team were at least able to get back to basics on the football pitch with an important win aided by strong performances from some of the club’s most reliable players.
See how the players rated below...
Barcelona 4-2 Getafe: Player Ratings, Match Statistics
✔️ Sergio Busquets: 8.5
In the midst of an inconsistent season, Sergio Busquets has often had to bear the brunt of heat from Barcelona fans who have often pointed to the senior midfielder as an example of the poor squad planning that has taken place at Camp Nou. At 32 years of age, the central midfielder is simply too old and too expensive, right?
Well on Thursday night Busquets looked back to his very best. Along with organising a midfield that dominated the match, the Spanish midfielder was also on hand to set up the opening goal on the night.
❌ Clement Lenglet: 5.9
Sometimes players just need to hold their hands up and say they were the victim of little more than bad luck. That’s exactly what happened to Clement Lenglet on Thursday night as he indirectly helped Getafe get back into the match.
Following a bright start from the home side, the visitors then played a smart move down the left flank, which allowed Marc Cucurella to fire a ball across the Barcelona goal mouth. The cross found striker Angel directly in front of the Barca goal but his poor touch saw the ball fly off wide and seemingly head out for a goal kick. However, in little more than a moment of bad luck, the poor shot then smacked off the leg of Lenglet and into the back of the net.
⭐ Lionel Messi: 9.8
While his future may still be up in the air, Lionel Messi looked like his old self in the blue and red of Barcelona on Thursday evening with no less than two goals for Koeman’s side.
The Argentine star struck first after just eight minutes when he received a ball inside the Getafe box and struck a wonderful shot to tuck the ball inside the top right corner of the opposing goal.
His next goal came midway through the first half, when a cross found the forward inside the penalty area and allowed him to fire a shot towards goal, only to watch it smack off the post. Fortunately, the Barcelona player was able to latch on to the rebound and happily rifled the ball home to make it 3-1.
This performance means Messi has now scored a remarkable 23 goals and bagged a further eight assists in just 23 games since the turn of the year.
Lionel Messi 
Antoine Griezmann 
Sergio Busquets 
Barcelona 
Getafe 
Real Madrid 
Athletic 
