Alcacer, Messi and Vidal on target as rotated Barça see off Athletic
Barcelona beat Athletic Bilbao 3-0 on Saturday to move back to within one point of Real Madrid, whose game against Celta Vigo this weekend is unlikely to go ahead due to the weather in Galicia.
Goals from Paco Alcacer, Lionel Messi and Aleix Vidal were enough to close the gap on Madrid, although Barca have now played two more games than their title rivals.
Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta did not recover in time to start here, but that did not stop Luis Enrique rotating. There were starts for Aleix Vidal, Jeremy Mathieu and Paco Alcacer, among others, while Luis Suarez started on the bench.
Athletic threatened early on — Raul Garcia hit the post and Inaki Williams missed a gilt-edged headed chance — and were the better of the two sides for half an hour but found themselves two goals down at the break.
Alcacer opened the scoring from a Neymar pullback after the Brazilian had done well to reach the byline. Messi added the second with an opportunistic free-kick from the right side of the penalty box.
Gerard Pique, who struggled in the first half and was lucky to only see a yellow card for pulling Raul Garcia back on the edge of the box, was forced off at half time. The club say it was a thigh problem, with Javier Mascherano taking his place.
It didn’t affect Barca, though, who were able to close out what was an open second half via a solo effort from Vidal. His second goal in five games arrived after he beat two Athletic defender and then found the bottom corner.
Before that, Messi has been taken off with Tuesday’s Copa del Rey semifinal in mind against Atletico Madrid.
