Almeria 0 Barça 8

It was a night of records for a stunning Barça performance tonight. The 0-8 scoreline equalled a fifty year old record set by Barça at Las Palmas as the highest away win by any team in the history of La Liga. It was also our sixth straight away win at the start of the season, a feat which has only previously been done by Real Madrid in 1992. Leading the way for us tonight was again Leo Messi who added another hat-trick to his growing collection and in doing so he reached 101 league goals in just 154 games. It is also noteworthy that 70 of these goals have been scored in just over two seasons (in 76 games) since Pep Guardiola took over as first team coach. 

Guardiola decided not to risk a fifth yellow card for Gerard Piqué which meant Andreu Fontas who celebrated his 21st birthday last week came in alongside Carles Puyol, while in midfield Javier Mascherano was included which gave a rest to Sergio Busquets. Fontas had an early lapse when he allowed Piatti too much space in the 6th minute but Valdés saved at the near post. However, this was Almeria's only real attempt on goal in the first half as Barça immediately began to take control. Early on we looked guilty of trying too many passes but Villa had one double chance and Messi hit one wide. In the 15th minute Messi went on an exciting run with a one-two with Villa included but he couldn't get a shot in, but just two minutes later our two forwards combined again with Villa rolling the ball with the sole of his boot back to Messi to shoot home from the edge of the area.

After the first goal we began to run riot as Almeria began to fall apart. In the 19th minute Xavi played the ball to Iniesta on the left of the area, Iniesta tried to cross low and a defender made a hash of trying to clear sending the ball back to Iniesta who just five yards out fired into the top of the net past Diego Alves's desperate dive. Things got worse for Almeria soon after when Acasiete tried to cut out Maxwell's low centre but only succeeded in nudging the ball into the corner of the net. Our fourth goal came after a terrific long ball out of defence from Fontas which found Pedro speeding in to prod the ball past the unfortunate Diego Alves. Then in the 37th minute Messi sent Pedro away again on the right, Pedro found Messi with the cross and despite a stop from Diego Alves with the first shot Messi got another bite and made no mistake with the rebound.

Guardiola gave a rest to Xavi and Iniesta for the second half with Thiago and Keita coming on, though it was the third substitution in the 56th minute that brought the game back to life with Bojan replacing Pedro. Bojan had only been on for six minutes when Messi squeezed a pass through for him and he did well to hold off two defenders and slipping it past the keeper. The only surprise was that David Villa had still not got on the scoresheet, in the 67th minute he sent in a decent shot, Alves saved but failed to hold and Messi was on hand to tap in an easy rebound. Messi completed his recital but setting up Bojan again for his second and our eighth. Villa should have got his goal, after good work from Bojan, and made it a record-breaking 0-9 but Diego Alves saved again in the 80th minute and it seemed we didn't have the desire to press forward for more goals. Almeria offered very little though Valdés did have to make one splendid save tipping Piatti's dipping shot onto the top of the crossbar.

This is obviously an excellent way to build up to next week's clasico with Real Madrid though I hope we haven't used up all our luck in front of goal this week.   

Barça: Valdés 7.5; Alves 7, Puyol 8, Fontas 7, Maxwell 7; Xavi 8 (Thiago m45, 7), Mascherano 8.5, Iniesta 8 (Keita m45, 7); Pedro 7 (Bojan m56, 8), Messi 9.5, Villa 7.

Goals: m17 Messi 0-1, m19 Iniesta 0-2, m27 Acasiete o.g. 0-3, m35 Pedro 0-4, m37 Messi 0-5, m62 Bojan 0-6, m67 Messi 0-7, m73 Bojan 0-8

Barça yellow card: m55 Thiago