FC Barcelona 3 - Malaga 0
Barça put in a sparkling performance at the Nou Camp on Sunday night to beat Malaga 3-0 and move into third spot in the league, just 7 points off the leaders.
A scintillating first half display saw Rijkaard's men go in 3 up after 45 minutes in which Luis Garcia and Saviola cut swathes through the Malaga defence. The second half was a quieter affair, but Barça always controlled possession and never looked really troubled.
Although Malaga started the brighter, Barça were soon creating chances and on 7 minutes, Ronaldinho put Luis Garcia in alone on the keeper, but Catalayud in the Malaga goal stopped well. Four minutes later, the Malaga keeper was again called on this time to stop a Cocu header from a Van Bronkhorst cross.
Rijkaard's team now started to dominate and on 13 minutes Ronaldinho came close with a shot the keeper just tipped wide.
Saviola's 11th goal of the campaign came on 18 minutes when he combined brilliantly with Luis Garcia to carve open the Malaga defence. Five minutes later, scorer turned provider as the young Argentinean sent Luis Garcia through for a cracking second goal. Diego Alonso then came close with a header for Malaga, but Barça were rampant, with Ronaldinho, Saviola and Luis Garcia looking likely to score again at any moment. In fact it was Cocu who got the third after Luis Garcia and Xavi combined on the right and the Dutch midfielder fired home from the edge of the box.
Bad news for Rijkaard came when Puyol was forced off with a muscle injury that could see him out of next week's big game against Madrid. Marquez came on to cover at the back.
As expected, Andrés Iniesta came on at half time for Edgar Davids, who was just one yellow card away from suspension and the youngster was soon in the action setting up Saviola and Luis Garcia with good chances. Although the rhythm dropped off in the second half, there were still chances for more goals.
On 78 Josemi saved Malaga from a fourth when he just got in ahead of Cocu after good work from Ronaldinho. Two minutes later, Valdes was called on to make his first important intervention to stop a Leko free kick and in injury time, Saviola failed to put away a chance when he was one on one with the keeper.
source: fcbarcelona.com.
