Barcelona beats Celta Vigo in Spanish Cup 2018
Lionel Messi played a starring role as FC Barcelona thrashed Celta Vigo 5-0 to secure their spot in the Copa del Rey quarterfinals.The Catalan giants came into the clash with a slight advantage after securing a 1-1 away draw in the first leg.The deadlock was broken after 13 minutes through Messi, who sent a fine low volley past Sergio Alvarez following a cross from Jordi Alba.Two minutes later, the hosts doubled their advantage as Messi exchanged passes with Alba before calmly slotting past Alvarez.Barca continued to dominate and bagged a third goal in the 28th minute when Messi turned provider to pick out Alba who converted at the far post.Three minutes later, Luis Suarez got on the scoresheet with a fine first-time finish after he profited from an error in the Celta defence.Celta showed glimpses of their attacking prowess in the half, although they did not do enough to test Barca goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen.The second stanza continued in the same vein as the first with the Catalan giants seeing a lot of the ball although the chances had dried up in the opening 15 minutes.Ernesto Valverde opted for a change on the hour mark as Messi way for Ousmane Dembele, while Celta introduced Brais Mendez for Pione Sisto a minute later.Suarez went close to extending Barca’s advantage with 10 minutes remaining as he spotted Alvarez off his line, but his lob sailed inches of the upright.The home side eventually added a fifth goal in the 87th minute when Dembele did well to pick out Ivan Rakitic, who headed home from close range.That proved to be the final piece of goal-mouth action of the half as Barca ran out 5-0 winners on the night and 6-1 aggregate winners in the tie.
