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Barcelona 7 Valencia 0: Luis Suarez says it would take 'catastrophe' to not reach final after humiliating Gary Neville

There looks to be no way back for Valencia in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final 

Simon Rice
Thursday 04 February 2016 09:23 GMT
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Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi celebrate
Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi celebrate

Luis Suarez says it would take a "catastrophe" for Barcelona to fail to reach the Copa del Rey final after they humiliated Gary Neville's Valencia side 7-0 in the first-leg of their semi-final meeting.

Suarez scored four goals and Lionel Messi grabbed a hat-trick at the Nou Camp on an embarrassing night for former Manchester United defender Neville.

"Great result which puts us closer to the objective," Suarez told Movistar after the match. "There'd have to be a catastrophe to not play the final."

Barely seven minutes had elapsed when Neymar stole the ball from a careless Andre Gomes in midfield, raced forward and passed to Suarez who rifled a shot across goal past Matthew Ryan.

Barca went two up when Sergio Busquets sent a long ball down the right which Aleix Vidal pulled back for Suarez to blast past Ryan.

Valencia struggled to contain a Barca side with Neymar, Messi and Suarez creating danger almost at will.

Neville's side rarely got near goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen as Barcelona produced one of their best performances of the season with Andres Iniesta and Messi playing in their ninth Copa del Rey semi-final in 10 seasons.

Messi scored the third after a neat back-heel from Neymar.

On the stroke of half-time Barcelona were awarded a penalty when Shkodran Mustafi brought Messi down and was sent off but Neymar hit the post to leave the score 3-0 at the interval.

Gary Neville watches Valencia against Barcelona

Russian Denis Cheryshev came on as a substitute for his Valencia debut just before Messi scored Barca's fourth in the 59th minute, taking a back-heel from Suarez and weaving past two defenders.

Valencia had the ball in the net in the 69th minute after Cheryshev laid on for Rodrigo but it was ruled out for offside and Messi soon completed his hat-trick.

"I couldn't imagine a debut like this. I know it's Barcelona but we can't give such an image (of ourselves)," Cheryshev, on loan from Real Madrid, said. "Like this we won't go anywhere."

Gary Neville speaks to the media after Barcelona defeat

Suarez scored twice in the last seven minutes, a header from Adriano's cross and a shot from Arda Turan's square ball taking the Uruguayan's tally to nine goals in five matches and 35 for the season.

The second leg will be played in Valencia next Wednesday.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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