Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi strike late for Barcelona to give them a 2-1 win over brave Alaves and maintain their unbeaten record
Philippe Coutinho makes first start for Barcelona in 2-1 win
Lionel Messi scored a spectacular free-kick to give Barcelona a come-from-behind 2-1 win over struggling Alavés, keeping the Catalans 11 points clear at the top of La Liga and preserving their unbeaten record in the league.
PHILIPPE COUTINHO repeatedly got in the way of Lionel Messi during his full Barcelona debut against Alaves.
The Brazilian struggled to make a huge influence on the game having just returned from a thigh injury and was substituted after 65 minutes.
Moreno was not impressed by Coutinho’s performance and says he had a negative impact on the width of the Barcelona team.
Alavés were the only team to win at the Camp Nou in the league last season and looked set to overshadow Philippe Coutinho’s first start for Barça when the Sweden striker John Guidetti gave them a shock lead in the 23rd minute, falling over as he lashed the ball past Marc-André ter Stegen.
Luis Suárez finally levelled for the Catalans in the 72nd minute, scoring for the eighth league game in a row following wave after wave of attacks from Barça and a handful of impressive saves from the visiting goalkeeper, Fernando Pacheco.
Alaves continue to protest about that Umtiti handball, which would have been a harsh award in my view, after the whistle. But they may well feel they deserved more than that – they were excellent for the most part, everyone knowing their jobs to the letter, and it took until around the 70th minute for Barca to start cutting them open. Then Suarez scored – replays show it might actually have glanced in off the hand of a ducking Pique – and it was always going to be hard after that. Pacheco could have got a firmer hand on Messi’s free-kick, I’d say, but this will go down as another one the world’s best player has pulled out of the fire. It was a fairly quiet debut for Coutinho, by the way, but nobody will mind just now. What on earth can stop Barcelona from romping to the title?
Barcelona top the standings with 57 points, 11 ahead of their nearest challengers, Atlético Madrid, and 19 ahead of the champions, Real Madrid. Atlético overcame the absence of their injured striker Diego Costa to beat Las Palmas 3-0 while Sevilla were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Getafe after a controversial equaliser in injury time.
