Rayo Vallecano vs Barcelona saw 7 goals from Barcelona, two from Messi who was his normal brilliant self as once-mighty now scarred Barcelona put an awful week behind them with thrashing of. Real Madrid has to wait to clinche the La Liga title / Highlights Video
Madrid / NationalTurk – Rayo Vallecano vs Barcelona 2012 finishes +7 goals, highrollers are happy while bookies not along with poor Rayo Vallecano fans who were angry at having been charged extra for their Rayo Vallecano vs Barcelona tickets too see Rayo play Barcelona. Rayo Vallecano got beaten around badly by a surging Barcelona.
Barcelona recover from tumultuous week but it’s Real Madrid who close in on La Liga as normal service resumes after the tumultous week when Barcelona lost La Liga title, Champions League trophy and their coach Guardiola.
Rayo Vallecano vs Barcelona : 7 goals from Barcelona significant but less important
Barcelona rediscovered their groove by putting seven past Rayo, but it’s Jose Mourinho’s side who are closest to league glory as both teams bounced back from midweek horrors. Barcelona responded in style on Sunday when they demolished Rayo Vallecano 7-0, with Messi finally ending his unbelievable three-match goal drought. That must feel like an eternity for a player who has more scoring records in the first quarter of 2012 alone than most strikers have goals.
Rayo Vallecano vs Barcelona 2012 : Messi on record-course
Barcelona’s seven strikes in Vallecas leaves them just one shy of the club’s all-time record of 105 goals in a single season set in 2008-09, Pep Guardiola’s first year in charge at Barcelona helm. Lionel Messi, meanwhile, may not be going to CL Finals in Munich in May, but he is now only a hat-trick away from surpassing Bayern Munich legend Gerd Muller’s European record of 67 competitive goals in one campaign.
Real Madrid, likewise, could set a new milestone of their own by the end of the season. Should Real Madrid win their remaining three games, they will become the first club in the history of La Liga to collect 100 points in a single season, beating the previous best of 99 set by the Blaugrana in 2009-10. But win in Bilbao on Wednesday and they will officially end Guardiola’s reign as the king of Spain.
Rayo Vallecano vs Barcelona 2012 : Watch how Barcelona abuses Rayo in front of their fans
[media id=517 width=610 height=340]It took 16 minutes for Lionel Messi to get the opening goal with a simple tap in of a Pedro cross. Rober gave Barcelona help they really didn’t need with a own goal that made it 2-0 and Messi got involved again with a brilliant pass to set up Seydou Keita for a third goal.Messi shook off his frustrations against Chelsea and his devastation of Guardiola’s quit announcement as he danced around Rayo’s shell-shocked defence, who more than anything looked stunned that Pep opted to field a weakened side.
Victor Valdes, Dani Alves, Gerard Pique, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas were all missing from the starting XI as some of the squad’s fringe players were given a run-out to prove to their future boss Vilanova that they deserve to be in his plans next season. The absences forced Messi to play the role of playmaker and goalscorer. The Argentine provided two assists and netted two of his own as he joined Ronaldo on an amazing 43 league goals this season. The La Liga title may be a foregone conclusion, but the top scorer race looks set to go down to the wire, especially since both men will not require to be rested in anticipation of a Champions League final.
Rayo Vallecano vs Barcelona 2012 : After a chaotic week Barca wins with style
It’s been a roller-coaster week in Spanish football, and not just for Barcelona. But it was in Catalunya where it all was launched last Saturday when Real Madrid ended the Blaugrana’s stranglehold in the El Clasico series in La Liga with a 2-1 win at Camp Nou. It was Pep Guardiola’s first loss to Los Blancos over 90 minutes as a manager, and as a result it’s now set to also end the 41-year-old’s 100 per cent record as the Spanish league champions.
Up 3-0 at halftime, Barcelona weren’t about to take their foot off of the pedal. Pedro scored just after the break to add to the visitors’ lead before Thiago scored and Pedro added a second to make it 6-0. Just for good measure, Messi picked up a brace in the 90th minute and Barcelona had themselves an incredibly easy win to give Pep Guardiola something to smile about two days after announcing he would be stepping down at the end of the year.
Then in midweek, Barca and Real were denied a famous Clasico Champions League final when they were bundled out of the last four. Both teams had a two-goal lead at some stage of their respective second leg encounters and looked a certainty to set up an Allianz Arena grandstand, but somehow contrived to blow it in uncharacteristic fashion.
Barcelona won’t allow Real Madrid to clinche La Liga title yet
Had Barcelona lost, Madrid would have clinched the title, but because they trampled over Rayo, the race for the title is still technically alive. Even so, with Madrid seven points up and just three matches to play, they need just a win to make the title officially theirs and that could come as Wednesday.
Ironically, it was their two best players – the two best players in the world – who cost their sides a place in the final when both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo missed crucial penalties.
Barcelona kept Real Madrid’s La Liga title celebrations on hold for a few days at least with this crushing 7-0 victory at Rayo Vallecano on Sunday after Real Madrid had cruised to a 3-0 home win over Sevilla.Despite the Argentine and his team-mates’ best efforts, however, it is Real Madrid who are now 90 minutes away from claiming their 32nd Primera Division crown after a swift 3-0 home victory over one of their tougher opponents in the title run-in, Sevilla.
Barcelona’s week was compounded when Pep Guardiola announced on Friday that he would be leaving the Catalan giants at the end of the campaign, with his assistant Tito Vilanova promoted to take over the hotseat from July 1 onwards. It was a triple blow to the Blaugrana, one that they had not even come close to experiencing before over the last four seasons. Suddenly, their high of highs that just never seemed to end came crashing down in the space of seven days.
Two days after Pep Guardiola announced his decision to step down as Barca coach at the end of the season, World Player of the Year Lionel Messi scored two goals and had a hand in four more including two for Pedro.
Barcelona were playing at Rayo Vallecona’s compact stadium just a short distance away from Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid where everything was in place for the mass festivities expected when Jose Mourinho’s side win a first league title in four years.
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