Barça dispels doubts with a hurricane of goals

BarcelonaBarça's routine is back, and it's nothing less than thrashing their Liga F rivals in spectacular fashion. After their defeat against Real Sociedad last week, Pere Romeu's team sought to dispel any doubts with a resounding victory against Deportivo Abanca, a team languishing at the bottom of the league table. The Catalan hurricane, witnessed by 3,165 spectators, lasted 45 minutes.

The visitors' weak resistance only lasted fifteen minutes in Sant Joan Despí. That's all the time it took for Barça to open the scoring, when Vicky López netted a superb goal. With the floodgates open, Barça added five more goals in the next half hour. Alexia Putellas, Mapi León, Laia Aleixandri – who scored twice and was named player of the match – and Pina dismantled the Galician side with ease. Before halftime, the opponent's defeat was sealed with an unfortunate own goal by Vera Martínez.

Barça extended their lead with an eighth goal, scored by Graham Hansen in stoppage time before halftime. With the job more than done by the end of the first half, Romeu made substitutions, bringing on two starters, Aleixa and Mapi. Paredes and Kika Nazareth, who returned from injury, entered the pitch. Later, Ewa Pajor, the team's only center forward, came on, a return warmly welcomed by the Barça coaching staff.

Aside from Pajor, the second round of substitutions also saw a debut: left-back Carla Julià, signed from Levante Badalona in the summer to play for the reserve team, made her first-team debut just a couple of days before her nineteenth birthday. With little else to report until the final whistle, Barça focused on managing their energy levels and eased off the pressure from the first half. The team will be fired up for their next match: Wednesday's visit from OH Leuven at Johan (6:45 pm) in their return to the Champions League.