Barcelona went back to the top of the Spanish Liga on Saturday with a 4-1 slaughter of Athletic Bilbao.
The star of the show in the delighted Camp Nou was teenage striker Bojan, who scored two handsome goals. The other goals were put away by fellow Barca youth products Jeffren and Lionel Messi. The irony of Bojan’s goals was that he was supposed to be on the subs’ bench as usual. But Zlatan Ibrahimovic pulled a muscle in his right leg in the pre-match warmup, and Bojan took his place.
Ibrahimovic, who had scored in four successive matches, is doubtful for Tuesday’s Champions League showdown against Arsenal – and for the April 10 “Clasico” away to Real Madrid. Barca are now three points above Real, who are away to lowly Racing Santander on Sunday.
Venezuelan winger Jeffren – one of the many youngsters given his wings by Guardiola – opened the scoring after 27 minutes by turning in a precise centre from Eric Abidal, who is finally fit again. Bojan calmly made it 2-0 just before half-time after controlling a long ball from veteran captain Carles Puyol.
In the 59th minute Bojan scored his second goal after more good work down the left by Abidal. Messi then made it 4-0 on a centre from Pedro, another of Guardiola’s discoveries. It was Messi’s 26th goal of the season and leaves him three above Gonzalo Higuain of Real Madrid in the scorers’ chart.
Markel Susaeta pulled a consolation goal back for Bilbao – who are sixth in La Liga – 14 minutes from time. Whilst Messi was happy to amongst the goals once more, it was still far from a vintage performance from the Argentine who was ill in previous days training.
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