Sporting vs. Barcelona: Score and Reaction from 2016 La Liga Match

Barcelona overcame a sluggish start Saturday to score a dominant 5-0 La Liga victory over Sporting Gijon at Estadio El Molinon.

Neymar netted a brace while Luis Suarez, Rafinha and Arda Turan also scored goals for Barca, which alleviated at least some of the attacking concerns that were raised after Lionel Messi suffered a groin injury Wednesday. The club announced he’s expected to miss three weeks of action to recover.

Saturday’s win moved Barcelona atop the league table for the time being. Real Madrid and Sevilla could each leapfrog the side depending on the results of their respective Matchday 6 games, though.

Although most of the discussion leading up to the fixture surrounded how the Blaugrana would perform without their dynamic forward, manager Luis Enrique expressed confidence Friday the star-studded squad could still compete an elite level, per BBC Sport.

“We’ve got more than enough resources to deal with [Messi’s absence] and beat any team,” Enrique said. “I think to win titles we need a full squad, while at the same time we do have to be able to deal with situations like this when they come up.”

The initial returns didn’t look promising. Barcelona struggled to develop any rhythm inside the attacking third for the first 20 minutes of the match. In fact, it was Sporting that generated most of the early chances, including a free kick from just outside the box after a Marc-Andre ter Stegen handball.

The Rojiblancos failed to capitalize on any of those opportunities to grab the lead, however, and the Barca offense finally came to life around the half-hour mark.

Suarez got Barcelona on the scoreboard first after a risky decision by Sporting goalkeeper Ivan Cuellar failed to pay off. The ‘keeper rushed off his line to attack a bouncing lob pass from Turan, but a nifty touch by the Uruguayan striker put him in the clear and he easily slotted his shot in …

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