barça prove supremacy with six-goal rout of roma published: tuesday 24 november 2015, 23.01cet barcelona 6-1 roma luis suárez and lionel messi scored two each, with gerard piqué and adriano also on target, as qualified barça sealed first place in group e. by graham hunter from camp nou
barcelona clinch top spot in section with resounding victory luis suárez double makes it five goals from five group e games lionel messi's first barça start since late september yields a brace a second-half penalty save apiece for the two goalkeepers final group e games: leverkusen v barcelona, roma v bate (9 december)
barcelona not only won group e but did so with immense panache in a 6-1 demolition of as roma.
despite the absence of andrés ıniesta and javier mascherano, the already qualified holders raced into top gear within the first few minutes and two goals in four minutes, from luis suárez then lionel messi, put them firmly in control.
their second sublime performance in the space of four days, following saturday's 4-0 victory over real madrid at the santiago bernabéu, marks spain and europe's reigning champions as being in their best form since at least june when they won this competition.
the opener came after wojciech szczęsny had pulled off a terrific stop from messi; the argentinian had raked a shot just wide; and the officials ruled offside his sixth-minute tap-in. neymar started it with a pass from deep, dani alves collected and squared and there was suárez to finesse the ball across the line.
one very quickly became two courtesy of a magical goal. every player in the home team bar marc-andré ter stegen touched the ball at least once before a lightning set of inter-passes between all three strikers set messi up to loft over szczęsny.
just before half-time the 'oh!' expression on luis enrique's face – as he rose to acclaim suárez's second, a volley across the penalty area into the far panel of the roma net – told everything about the quality.
the second half brought no respite as suárez and messi combined to tee up gerard piqué for 4-0. then barcelona's 'trident' combined as neymar and suárez provided for messi to make it five.
to cap a special night, a rare goal arrived for substitute adriano after roma's keeper had saved neymar's penalty – a feat almost immediately emulated by ter stegen from edin džeko's spot kick. what consolation there was for the bosnian in his late headed goal is hard to imagine.
