FCBARCELONA.CAT

23.10.2008 13:20

Three big wins in a month

Anna Segura

FC Barcelona 0-5 victory against FC Basel on Wednesday evening was the team’s third emphatic victory in just over a month and has seen their goals-to-game ratio rise to 2.8 goals in every 90 minutes.

Pep Guardiola’s team have started the new campaign with a number of superb displays and the win in Switzerland is the third high-scoring triumph in the past 32 days. The trio of teams that have now conceded five or more goals in a game against Barça are Sporting de Gijón, Atlético de Madrid and now Basel.

32 days

All three of those wins has come in the past 32 days, despite the fact there was a break for international games at the start of the current month. The first triumph came on September 21 in El Molinón when Sporting de Gijón were stunned by the Blaugrana and were beaten 1-6 .

Three games later and Guardiola’s team were looking sharp in front of goal once again as the racked up another high score. This time it was Atlético de Madrid that were unable to keep them out and went down 6-1 in Camp Nou. This week saw another huge scoreline as Basel were beaten 0-5 in Switzerland.

2.9 goals-per-game

The only game this season when the Balugrana have not been able to score came in the first match of the campaign when they lost 1-0 to Numancia. Since then, a goal has been scored in every encounter and in the ten matches in all competitions the team have hit the net on 29 occasions, making an average of 2.9 goals-per-game.

Qualifying average

If the two Champions League qualifying games are included into the statistics then the goals average goes down slightly to 2.75 goals-per-game because despite netting four goals in the first leg against Wisla, the team were beaten 1-0 in Krakow in the second outing.

Consistent Messi

The only player that has scored in all three of the high-scoring victories this term is Lionel Messi. After netting twice in El Molinón, the Argentinian added another against Atlético in Camp Nou and another against Basel on Wednesday evening. Samuel Eto’o has also scored three in two matches, and Xavi Hernández has netted two in the games.