I guess you can say last weekend’s 2-0 loss to Hercules was a fluke.
Barcelona had a quick chance to please the home crowd that watched the powerhouse side suffer a shock loss over the weekend by putting on yet another brilliant Champions League performance in their debut match against Greek side Panathinaikos. However, many fans had to be feeling nauseous towards the beginning of the match.
In the 20th minute Frenchman Sidney Govou took a surprising lead for his Panathinaikos side, but the early goal would prove to only ignite the Barcelona offense for five consecutive scores to finish the rout of the Greek side. Govou’s early score would end up being the only shot of the match for the underdog squad and Lionel Messi would put on yet another memorable performance for the former treble winning side.
Messi would score twice in the first half following Govou’s early goal and David Villa would join in the fun as the La Liga giants took a 3-1 lead over there opponent. In the second half of action Messi would setup two more goals with the fourth coming from Pedro Rodriguez following Messi’s shot off of the post. The fifth would be scored by Dani Alves after a brilliant chip pass from Messi into the box.
Messi could have had 3 or 4 goals in the match, but missed a penalty kick and hit the crossbar in the first half of action.
As for Valencia, the side would be granted an easy away victory visiting Turkish squad Bursaspor. The top four side from last season would score four goals in the match and concede zero in the easy win. All four goals were scored by a different player (Costa, Aduriz, Pablo, and Soldado) and all four scores would be pretty well spread out over the course of the match with two coming in the first half and two in the second.
All in all the combined 9-1 total for the day between the two sides was the most impressive result of any major league in the debut match of the tournament.
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