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Barcelona strolled their way into the last eight of the Copa del Rey, easily dispatching Leganes 5-0 in front of a half-full Camp Nou.
Given the visitors' status as the lower ranked team in the draw, they had the option of using home advantage for the tie but they elected to play the match at Barcelona's iconic stadium which in turn generated more revenue for them.
However, the Catalans were in no mood of being generous and totally decimated the Madrid side, with goals from Arthur, Antoine Griezmann, Clement Lenglet, and a brace from skipper Lionel Messi completing the rout.
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The victory means that Barcelona added their name to the hat for the draws of the next round and would next be in action in this competition on February 5th. In this piece, we shall be highlighting five talking points from Barcelona's routine victory.
#5 Quique Setien resists temptation to name weakened side
Quique Setien's appointment as Barcelona coach was shocking to say the least, with the 61-year-old himself admitting that just a day earlier, he was walking cows in his village.
The optimism that greeted his arrival has quickly faded, with his side struggling to dispatch Granada 1-0 in his first game in charge, while they trailed against Ibiza in the last round of the Copa del Rey and lost to Valencia over the weekend.
In light of the congested fixture list coming up, some would have expected Setien to give his more established players a rest like he did against Ibiza but the former Real Betis man was having none of that, perhaps due to of the scare that the Segunda B side gave his team.
With the exception of Luis Suarez who was ruled out through injury, every other player named in the starting lineup against Leganes is a regular, with the only peculiarity being Setien's 3-4-1-2 formation.
At the end of the day, a convincing victory was achieved and while the standards at Barcelona mean that a 5-0 win over Leganes would not cause too much celebration, it helped to ease some of the early pressure already mounting on Setien.
#4 Barcelona's firepower too much for Leganes
It was bad enough that they were drawn against Barcelona in the Round of 16 and any Leganes fan hoping to face a weakened side had their slim hopes of progress dissipated when the starting line-ups were named.
The difference in class and quality was evident from the get-go, with Antoine Griezmann firing Barcelona ahead after a neat one-two by Messi and Semedo saw the full-back tee him up.
The French international had a second ruled out for offside just five minutes later and the away side must have known they were in for a long night.
This proved to be the case when Clement Lenglet rose highest to convert a Lionel Messi corner and the Argentine got in on the act himself 15 minutes into the second half off a deflection by Rodrigo Tarin.
Arthur replaced Antoine Griezmann in the 72nd minute and it took the Brazilian just five minutes to get on the scoresheet after two rebounds from Ansu Fati and Messi fell kindly in his path.
Messi wrapped up proceedings for the night, latching onto an exquisite throughball from Ivan Rakitic before rounding Ivan Cuellar and slotting into an empty net with one minute to go.
Barcelona were utterly dominant in the game and this was reflected in the matchday stats, with their 74% possession, 844 passes (to Leganes' 291), and 90% passing accuracy indicative of their superiority in the match.
#3 Even in victory, Barcelona far from their fluid best
A glance at the 5-0 scoreline would suggest Barcelona were utterly dominant and while that might have been the case, it was not as pretty as fans of the club are used to.
Ernesto Valverde was sacked by the club chiefly because his side were not aesthetic on the eye and while Quique Setien might be a strong proponent of Johan Cruyff's methods, it would take some time for him to pass his message across to his players.
He showed great innovation by fielding his side in an unorthodox 3-4-1-2 formation, with Ansu Fati occupying the wing-back role while Arturo Vidal was deployed behind the front two of Messi and Griezmann.
For all the possession they had, they still found it difficult to create much from the middle and were still heavily dependent on Lionel Messi to break down the Leganes defence.
Ultimately, victory is all that matters, but as Valverde found out the hard way, sometimes it is not enough to just win, with the club having to win playing the 'Barcelona way' and the earlier Setien gets his methods ingrained with his players, the safer his job would be.
#2 Barcelona continue La Liga dominance in Copa del Rey
For over a century of the Copa del Rey's existence, the draws were made to favour the elite sides, with only a handful of lower division teams eligible for the competition.
This preference coupled with the two-legged nature of the previous tournaments meant that the bigger sides had ample time to recover from any shock first-leg deficits and made 'giant killings' a relative rarity in the Copa del Rey unlike the FA Cup in England.
However, changes to the rules of eligibility this season expanded the tournament to accommodate 125 teams and banished the two-legged ties until the semi-finals.
The result of this is that previously unheralded clubs had the chance to tee up with stronger opposition and the fact that lower-ranked teams had home advantage saw world-class players travel to Estadio Can Misses (in Ibiza), Estadio Las Gaunas (in Logrones) among others.
Expectedly, most of the fixtures ended in wins for the more established sides, although fourth division side Real Jaen knocked out Alaves in the first round, while Ibiza ran Barcelona ragged and Cultural Leonesa took Atletico Madrid to extra-time in the round-of-32 before eliminating them from the competition.
Heading into the last 16, 10 of the teams in the hat were La Liga sides, four from the Segunda Division, and two from the third-tier of the league format.
La Liga sides who took on lower division opponents all qualified, while Real Sociedad and Barcelona had too much firepower for fellow top-flight clubs Osasuna and Leganes respectively.
Sevilla and Segunda side Miranda would clash in the last fixture of the round-of-16 and if Miranda should see off the Andalusians, they would be the only 'small side' to compete in the quarter-final.
Regardless, the lower division sides have shown that they have what it takes to compete with the bigger guns and giant killings would be more pronounced in the Copa del Rey in future.
#1 Magical Messi delivers another masterclass
It is very rare for Lionel Messi to have an off day, but that was what happened in the defeat to Valencia over the weekend.
The Argentine international was by far the best Barcelona player on the pitch but he failed to find a way past Jaime Daumenech despite recording a game-high 11 shots in the clash at the Mestalla.
Judging by his high standards, that was poor to say the least and he made amends with a breathtaking display against Leganes.
The Barcelona skipper had a hand in all five of Barcelona's goals, combining well with Nelson Semedo en route Griezmann's opener, while swinging in the corner for Clement's Lenglet's header in the first half.
A brace was recorded in the second half and Arthur Melo would not have gotten on the scoresheet had Messi's goal-bound shot not been parried into his path by Ivan Cuellar.
Barcelona suffer from an over-dependence on their talisman and with Suarez set to spend an extended spell on the sidelines, his importance would be highlighted now more than ever but if he can keep churning out performances like he did on the night, the Blaugrana would fancy their chances of achieving their objectives.
