Suarez scores brace as Barcelona keep pressure on Madrid

Barcelona leapfrogged Real Madrid to the top of La Liga with a 3-0 sway against Espanyol in the Catalan Derby, with Luis Suarez scoring two times.

Barca struggled for fluency in a goalless first half, however after the break Suarez took on 2 protective errors by the residence side either side of an Ivan Rakitic 2nd.

Suarez opened the scoring in the 50th min following a devastating backpass by Jose Manuel Jurado, who had earlier missed out on a marvelous chance to fire Espanyol ahead in the fifth minute.

Rakitic’s left-footed initiative in the 76th extensive Barca’s lead, while Suarez sealed the win by rounding ‘caretaker Diego Lopez 10 minutes later after picking up Aarón Martin Caricol’s hacked clearance.

The win sees Barcelona go degree on 81 factors with Real Madrid – who earlier on Saturday defeated Valencia 2-1 – albeit having actually played a video game extra, while their exceptional head-to-head document has them topping the table.

It was Espanyol who made the brighter begin to the game though as well as they ought to have been ahead early, appearing Barcelona’s support with ease only for Jurado to badly drag his right-footed effort wide of the much article.

On the other hand, bar a couple of mazy Neymar oozes, it took all of 39 mins for the visitors to carve their initial real opening, the Brazilian supplying a wonderful round from the delegated Sergi Roberto at the far message that discovered the side netting with his header.

It did produce Barca’s ideal spell of the opening 45, though, with Neymar additionally shooting off a photo of a strike with his left foot that went simply wide of the near blog post prior to half-time.

After the break, an invigorated Barca side promptly took the lead although their opening goal was practically handed to them thanks to Jurado’s wayward backpass.

Neymar almost made it two on 60 minutes with a tried dink finish over Lopez from the left edge of the penalty location just for the ‘keeper to earn a great fingertip save.

Espanyol were still with confidence venturing forward themselves, with replacement Leo Baptistao having his shot-cross from the right well obstructed, as well as Jurado functioning one more opening – his left-footed volley well conserved by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

But as a result of Espanyol’s forays into the opposition half, they were a lot more vulnerable against the counter, and also certainly Lionel Messi escaped with the round, feeding Rakitic on the left of the location who totally deceived Lopez with his coolly slotted left-footed finish into the far edge.

Barcelona controlled process after that, therefore it was no surprise to see Suarez add a 2nd to his individual tally late on ice the win that sends the team top.