Page 2 - Barcelona 5-0 Leganes: 5 Hits and Flops

Barcelona booked their place in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals after a 5-0 thrashing of Leganes at the Camp Nou on Thursday evening. Lionel Messi netted a brace, while Antoine Griezmann, Clement Lenglet and Arthur Melo scored apiece as Quique Setien's men cruised to victory without truly breaking sweat at times.The rout was both thorough and began shortly after kick-off, with Griezmann applying the finishing touch to Nelson Semedo's low cross to break the deadlock four minutes in. Griezmann had his second correctly ruled out for offside shortly afterwards, before compatriot Lenglet doubled Barca's lead just before the half-hour mark. He reacted quickest, glancing a swerving header over goalkeeper Ivan Cuellar's head from Messi's corner delivery to make it 2-0. ON TO THE QUARTERFINALS! 💪🔵🔴⚽️ @AntoGriezmann (4')⚽️ @clement_lenglet (27')⚽️ L. #Messi (59')⚽️ @arthurhromelo (77')⚽️ L. #Messi (89') pic.twitter.com/zgc70aD3TI— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) January 30, 2020Messi turned goalscorer on 59 minutes, punishing the visitors for some poor defending on a counter-attack which consequently wrongfooted Cuellar before trickling in at his near post after taking a wicked deflection off Rodrigo Tarin. The messy goals continued, this time with substitute Arthur getting on the scoresheet after Ansu Fati had his one-on-one chance thwarted, before Messi's follow-up was cleared by an alert Chidozie Awaziem. Unfortunately for the Nigerian defender though, his defensive block fell perfectly for Arthur to slam home. Messi completed his brace with aplomb after 88 minutes, latching onto Ivan Rakitic's defence-splitting pass before ignoring an oncoming Cuellar and slamming into the roof of the net to add yet more gloss to Barca's dominance on the evening.Without further ado, here's a look at five hits and flops as the Blaugrana returned to winning ways after their 2-0 defeat by Valencia last weekend:#5 Flop: Rodrigo TarinTarin attempts to skip past Griezmann during a difficult evening's work for the visitorsOn another day, perhaps I would have opted for Fati here - such was the significance of him starting here. Given the circumstances, the 17-year-old forward did okay and well, Barca won 5-0. There are more pressing issues to discuss than a wasteful wonderkid who will get further opportunities to emphasise why he deserves that creative faith in future.Instead, I chose Leganes centre-back Rodrigo Tarín and there were a few others I could have justifiably selected for the #5 spot also: goalkeeper Ivan Cuellar didn't exactly cover himself in glory, while the visitors' wingbacks were disappointing too. While Awaziem defended bravely - albeit not to much success - Tarín had the worst distribution of all three Leganes centre-backs, lost possession on nine occasions and earned himself a needless booking late on too for his troubles.Despite making two interceptions and clearances, as well as a blocked shot over the 90 minutes, his pass completion (66.7%) was poor and an all-round nervy display only served to fan the flames as Barca probed in search for more goals.He was unlucky to get the final touch on Messi's first strike, but more disciplined positioning in the build-up would have seen him intercept Barca's fourth goal in its tracks 20 minutes later.Messi's attempted pass for Frenkie de Jong was cut out and unintentionally played forward by a teammate's slide, though Tarín was all over-the-place defensively which allowed Fati an opportunity to breach their backline. Despite a good initial stop and Awaziem's off-the-line clearance, the damage was irreplaceable.

Barcelona 5-0 Leganes: 5 Hits and Flops | Copa del Rey 2019-20

#4 Hit: Oscar Rodriguez