Barcelona put up a ruthless display to crush Valencia 7-1 in La Liga on Sunday, with five of the goals coming in a heavily one-sided first-half.
Frenkie De Jong opened the floodgates in the third minute before Ferran Torres and Raphinha added to the lead in the eighth and 14th minute to give Valencia a clear indication of how miserable their evening was about to be.
Raphinha’s goal came at the end of neat interplay between Lamine Yamal and Fermin Lopez to set him up. Lopez would then go from creator to scorer as he got a brace in the 24th minute and first half stoppage time to make it 5-0 by half-time and effectively end the tie as a contest.
The second half saw Valencia pull one back through Hugo Duro right before the hour mark but there was no stopping the Barcelona rampage as Robert Lewandowski came off the bench to get in on the scoring for what was the 100th goal in Hansi Flick’s time as Barcelona boss.
Cesar Tarrega then scored an own-goal off a Raphinha cross to complete the demolition job 15 minutes from time to boost the Catalan side’s goal difference and close the gap on second-placed Atletico Madrid to just three points.