6th December, 2016
Despite Luis Enrique making eight changes to the side that took on Real Madrid, they routed their Group C opponents in every way.
Lionel Messi opened the scoring in the first half but Arda Turan stole the show with a second half hat-trick. His first would come via his head after good work from Denis Suarez down the right hand side. The second just three minutes later was a lovely move that involved Messi, who played a weighted pass to Vidal, and Vidal, who pulled the ball back before Turan slotted home beyond a helpless Yann Sommer.
If the game wasn’t over at that point, it was 14 minutes later when Turan completed his hat-trick after good work by Alcacer to put it on a plate for him to score again despite Sommer trying to get his body behind it. Gladbach huffed and puffed but they could not make any inroads against a stout Barcelona defense and when they did break, Cillessen was off his line and foiling them at every turn.
Barcelona completed the group stage of the Champions League with just one blip against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City when they lost 3-1. While it won’t be easy to erase the memories of Sergio Ramos’ late equaliser against them in El Clásico on Saturday, this was a decent way to start as they passed their German opponents off the park and go through as Group C winners.
-AS Sports