Barcelona and Rayo Vallecano played an absolutely insane match on Saturday, finishing with a final score of 5-2 that, frankly, wouldn't have been surprising to see closer to 9-4. Both attacks ran rampant, but no one had a better day than Neymar, who scored a whopping four goals and absolutely dominated Rayo's defense all day long.
Neymar has stunning 4-goal outburst for Barcelona to bury Rayo Vallecano
Hat tricks are so passe.
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The most interesting thing about Neymar’s outstanding performance is that the goals were almost underwhelming in comparison to the rest of his match. His first two strikes both came from the penalty spot, and he earned both of them by faking out defenders so hard they fouled him out of shame as much as anything else. His two open-play goals had pretty simple finishes, but were created by some pretty fantastic movement both on and off the ball in the buildup, like for the goal that gave him his hat trick:
Neymar also had a fairly nice assist for Barcelona's fifth goal, delivering a pinpoint cross into Luis Suarez' path despite having a defender in his face.
This match is a microcosm of the steady growth Neymar has been showing over the last year or so. Where once upon a time he would have gone first for the spectacular and may or may not have finished it off, now he’s going with the simpler things that are more likely to actually work. Today he identified a weakness in Rayo’s ability to defend him one-on-one, and he -- along with some rather excellent passing help from Suarez and Ivan Rakitic -- exploited that weakness ruthlessly to blow Rayo’s defense open time and time and time again.
If he can keep up this kind of form, Barcelona might not have to worry much about Lionel Messi being hurt after all.
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