FC Barcelona vs Eibar: Five talking points

Treble winners FC Barcelona took on SD Eibar at the Camp Nou today and ran off 3-1 victorious in a heated and thrilling encounter full of chances for both the teams. Luis Suarez took home the match ball as his hat trick was decisive in killing off the game. Barcelona hold on to their second spot tied with league leaders Real Madrid, ahead of them on goal difference. Here are our five talking points from the game.

• Defense continues to leak goals for the Blaugranas

Luis Enrique needs to bring back the tactics he used last year with the back four again as Barca are making new records in conceding goals now. Again, they conceded the first goal of the game mounting extra pressure on their shoulders as they needed two to win now. Pique and Alves might get benched once Vermaelen and Aleix Vidal return because these two players especially the latter has been making a lot of costly mistakes for the Catalans in the recent days.

• Eibar were violent

Watching the game, it seemed like Eibar didn’t come here to win but for taking the vengeance after Barca almost send them to Segunda last season by allowing Deportivo to draw. Some of the fouls they made were absolutely horrible as Neymar, Busquets and Suarez were repeatedly targeted. The match even took a violent turn in the last minutes of the game when their one defender pushed the Barcelona number 11 after the ball went on to the sidelines.

• Abysmal Refereeing

This match saw one of the worst refereeing decisions in the recent times as the main official of the match Del Cerro Grande made some absolutely clueless decisions one of which was the away team ending with 11 players after the 90 minutes given the degree of the violence in some of their tackles which could have caused an injury to one of the players for men in Blue and Red. Rather Javier Mascherano was shown a straight red, much to the astonishment of the home fans after it is reported that he said something to the referee.

• Neymar and Suarez stepping up for Barca

Neymar and Suarez have been at their brilliant best for the Catalans in the recent weeks as the team needed some inspiration from their star duo after their creative and attacking leader Lionel Messi got injured. And the duo proved their worth as Neymar gave two beautiful assists in the game while Suarez scored his first hat-trick for the Treble winners after completing his first year at the club.  Also after this match, Neymar has involved himself in Barcelona’s last 10 goals scoring  5 goals and assisting 5 .

Also the duo is the first and second in the league top scorer list now.

• Iniesta cannot come back at a better time

Given the fact that Javier Mascherano can now miss 4 games due to the red card he received on the field and Sergi Roberto and Rafinha are now injured, Barcelona now only have Ivan Rakitic and Sergio Busquets as their regular midfielders with the addition of the B team youngster Gumbao. They would desperately need the services of their best midfielder Andres Iniesta now, as without him, Barcelona will be seriously lacking the quality they need to wear off the time before their transfer ban is lifted and another Arda Turan is registered for the first team. Number of injuries that the Catalans are facing at the moment, Enrique would be praying for injury free season without any red cards, as the club is facing serious depth issues at the moment.