Almeria 0 - 2 Barcelona


The 18-year-old Spain striker was handed a rare start with Samuel Eto'o and Thierry Henry on the bench and he did not disappoint, finishing off delightful passing moves for his first league goals of the season.

Until the diminutive Catalan's 53rd-minute opener, Almeria had frustrated their visitors with goalkeeper Diego Alves in fine form.

The Brazilian shot-stopper made brilliant first-half saves from Kader Keita, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi, and one incredible stop from a Gerard Pique header that was so powerful Alves ended up flying backwards into the goal while the ball spun to safety.

The hosts, meanwhile, were not only on the back foot and tiny winger Albert Crusat should have given them the lead when he raced clear from halfway only to panic and lob well over as Victor Valdes raced to the edge of his penalty area.

Barca took the lead seven minutes into the second half after a hypnotic spell of passing culminated in Messi rifling a shot off the post and into the path of Bojan, who slid the ball into the unguarded net with keeper Alves stranded.

He doubled the lead just over two minutes later after a quite spectacular piece of build-up play that included a give-and-go started by Daniel Alves that went via a flying flick from Iniesta and an audacious backheel by Messi, with Alves running on to the latter to set up Bojan for a deflected finish.

The finish was fortuitous but the prologue spectacular. There was little left for either side to say afterwards as the match fizzled out into a training-ground exercise that saw Alexander Hleb and Eidur Gudjohnsen given a chance to stretch their legs.

The win puts Barca on 67 points, with second-placed Real Madrid on 60, but with 11 games remaining - including a Clasico at the Bernabeu - Los Merengues still have everything to play for.