Madrid, June 17 (IANS) La Liga leaders FC Barcelona defeated Leganes 2-0 in empty Camp Nou Stadium to maintain their 100 per cent record after the league’s resumption.
Ansu Fati and Lionel Messi scored respectively to give Barcelona all three points on Tuesday evening, reports Xinhua news agency.
Barcelona’s coach Quique Setien made several changes to the squad that won 4-0 in Mallorca on Saturday with Fati, Clement Lenglet, Arthur Melo, Junior Firpo and Ivan Rakitic all coming into the starting 11.
Leganes started strongly with Roque Mesa seeing Lenglet clear a shot off the line, while Miguel Angel Guerrero fired just wide from a narrow-angle.
Barcelona was struggling to create chances. Antoine Griezmann’s header wide in the 35th minute before Fati opened the scoring in the 42nd minute.
The second half was relatively sterile until the 64th minute when Antoine Griezmann slipped the ball past Cuellar in the 65th minute only for it to be ruled out by the VAR for a narrow offside.
Two minutes later Messi was fouled in the box and sent Leganes’ goalkeeper the wrong way with his spot-kick.
The tiredness of both teams produced a series of fouls that saw Barcelona given five yellow cards in the last 10 minutes and Leganes coach Javier Aguirre sent off for apparent comments to the referee.
Tuesday also saw Espanyol take a vital point in their battle against relegation after a 0-0 draw away to fifth-placed Getafe. Carlos Bacca’s 18th-minute goal helped Villarreal strengthen their challenge for Europe with a 1-0 win at home to struggling Mallorca.
–IANS
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