BARCELONA: Barcelona put on a scintillating performance to crush visitors Real Betis 5-0 on Saturday as new arrivals Joao Felix and Joao Cancelo struck their first goals for the Catalans.

Earlier, Atletico Madrid were hammered 3-0 by Valencia at Mestalla with coach Diego Simeone labelling it the “weakest” performance during his time at the club.

Xavi Hernandez’s side provisionally moved top of the table with 13 points from five games, one point ahead of Real Madrid who host Real Sociedad late on Sunday.

Xavi handed Felix and compatriot Cancelo their first starts for the club and they quickly impressed home fans and their coach.

Loan signing Felix put Barcelona ahead after 25 minutes with a shot from a tight angle after he had missed his first attempt following a superb Oriol Romeu cross.

“I had a bad shot on the goal but I kept looking for the ball and finally scored,” the 23-year-old Felix told Movistar Plus.

“Everyone did very well. Everyone was where they should be. When you have a good structure and the ball circulates quickly, the spaces and the goals appear”.

Robert Lewandowski doubled the lead after a neat move in which Andreas Christensen slipped a pass to Felix who left the ball to give the Poland striker an easy finish.

Ferran Torres scored his third goal of the season with a low free kick into the bottom right corner in the 62nd minute before substitute Raphinha netted from the edge of the area to make it 4-0.

“I didn’t know we hadn’t scored from a free-kick since Messi,” Torres said after scoring the first free-kick goal for Barcelona since May 2021.Cancelo scored his first goal since joining Barca on loan from Manchester City to complete the rout nine minutes from time.

Coach Xavi said on the triumph: “It wasn’t a perfect game but it was excellent. We had a lot of brilliant moments. This is the way”.

Barcelona face Antwerp in their Champions League opener on Tuesday before hosting Celta Vigo in La Liga.

In the night’s other fixture, Atletico coach Simeone said his team put in their “weakest” performance of his 12-year reign in their three-goal thrashing by Valencia.

Hugo Duro netted a brace for the hosts and Javi Guerra tucked home the third as they dominated.

Los Che have started the season well after flirting with relegation until the final day of the previous campaign, and this was their finest outing yet under coach Ruben Baraja.

“We had the weakest game since I arrived at the club, and we have to congratulate our opponents,” said Simeone.

Defeat was the worst way for Atletico to prepare for the start of their Champions League campaign on Tuesday at Lazio.

“They came into the game with a lot more intensity and if you don’t match it ... it’s impossible to win any game,” said Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak.

Elsewhere, Athletic Bilbao earned a convincing 3-0 win over Cadiz to move provisionally third while Mallorca earned a late 1-0 win over Celta Vigo through Vedat Muriqi’s goal.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2023