Sports
Ansu Fati, Lionel Messi lead Barcelona to 2-0 victory over Leganes
Goals from Ansu Fati and Lionel Messi saw Barcelona beat lowly Leganes at Camp Nou in LaLiga on Tuesday night.
Quique Setien’s side struggled against the visitors’ five-man defence for much of the first half and the best early opportunities fell to the Madrid outfit.
Clement Lenglet denied Javier Eraso and then cleared off the line from Miguel Angel Guerrero seconds later as Leganes squandered a glorious double chance.
A few minutes later, Guerrero then flashed a shot across the face of goal from a tight angle and his effort grazed Marc-Andre ter Steen’s far post on its way through.
Many of Barca’s brightest moments were coming from Fati and the 17-year-old opened the scoring three minutes before the break as he hit a shot through a defender’s legs amid a crowd of bodies which beat Ivan Cuellar and nestled into the corner.
It was a half-chance at best, but was just what Barcelona needed after an indifferent first half and Setien’s side improved after the interval.
Leganes’ game plan remained the same, but Barca began to circulate the ball quicker and after Luis Suarez had replaced Fati, the home side thought they had scored again with 64 minutes on the clock.
Messi sent Nelson Semedo away down the right and the Portuguese, who had replaced Sergi Roberto moments earlier, crossed for Antoine Griezmann to finish with ease.
However, the VAR check showed Semedo was just offside and it did not count.
Barca continued to attack and won a penalty four minutes later, when Messi was adjudged to have been fouled in the area and sent Cuellar the wrong way from the spot.
Youngster Riqui Puig missed a couple of good chances in the final stages and Guido Carrillo fired wide for Leganes, whose coach Aguirre was shown the red card for protesting in added time.
Barca move provisionally five clear of Real Madrid at the top of the table, with Los Blancos at home to Valencia on Thursday.
Leganes are now bottom after Espanyol drew with Getafe earlier on Tuesday.
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