Barcelona kept hold of top spot in La Liga by overcoming a slow start to ease to victory over nine-man Rayo Vallecano, thanks to two goals in the space of two minutes from superstar duo Lionel Messi and Neymar.
In truth, Barca should have won by a far bigger margin with Messi in particular guilty of some poor misses in the second half. He had eight shots over the course of the 90 minutes but only three were on target.
But they did set a milestone at the other end of the field by keeping another clean sheet, allowing Claudio Bravo to overtake former keeper Pedro Artola’s record for minutes without conceding a goal in La Liga – Bravo has now played 630 minutes without seeing his defences breached.
Manager Luis Enrique said: “Beyond what the record means for one player is the performance of the team. We started strong.
“We were able to make the final pass and the victory makes us stronger. It’s statistics at the end of the season I’m most interested in.”
Rayo made the better start and created the game’s first chance when Alberto Bueno found space on the edge of the box to unleash a well-hit low strike which Bravo did superbly to save to his left.
After Roberto Trashorras had a dangerous free-kick deflected over the bar by the defensive wall Barca belatedly burst into life when a lofted through ball from Neymar released Messi, whose right-footed effort was well smothered by home keeper Tono.
Barca were struggling to produce any fluent football but Rayo’s ext-remely-high defensive line, heavily reliant on a risky offside trap, always made them liable to create chances and that route provided the breakthrough after 35 minutes.
Gerard Pique lofted through a pass from inside his own half and Messi timed his run to beat the offside trap before controlling the bouncing ball, holding off the attentions of Jorge Morcillo and producing a delicate left-footed lob over the advancing Tono.
Within a minute of the restart it was 2-0, and again Rayo’s dangerous offside trap was implicated as Marc Bartra released Munir El Haddadi who in turn found Neymar, and the Brazilian arrowed a firm right-footed strike perfectly into the left corner, leaving Tono rooted to the spot.
And Barca should have been awarded a penalty before the break when yet another piercing long ball released Munir, who rounded Tono and appeared to be clipped by the keeper’s outstretched boot, but referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz waved play on.
Rayo boss Paco Jemez made an attack-minded double substitution at the break, introducing Manucho and Javier Aquino, and Bravo was forced into another excellent save to keep out Leo Baptistao’s fizzing drive.
But the home team’s plans were wrecked shortly before the hour mark when Mateu Lahoz deemed a challenge by Morcillo on Messi to be worthy of a second yellow card, reducing Rayo to 10 men.
Barca were in complete control for the final half hour and squandered several chances to pile on more goals, with the subdued Andres Iniesta and substitute Ivan Rakitic producing saves from Tono.
The biggest culprit was Messi who fired three clear opportunities over the top, but Rayo never looked like getting back into the game and their numbers were further reduced in stoppage time when Aquino was sent off f for a late challenge on Pedro.
