After hitting the post so many times in past matches, King Henry finally crowns his efforts with three great goals.


Match Report: Saturday 29/09/2007 22:00 hrs (GMT +1), La Liga Match Day 6
LEVANTE UD - FC BARCELONA 1-4 ( 0-2 )


Stadium: Cuidad de Valencia, Valencia

Capacity: 25,354
Referee: Carlos Clos Gomez


Goals:

0-1 Henry ( 17' )
0-2 Henry ( 24' )

0-3 Henry ( 49' )
0-4 Messi ( 51' )

1-4 Viqueira ( 73'pen. )



Cautions:

Yellow Card :


FC Barcelona - None


Levante UD - Berson ( 32' ), Rigano ( 44' ), Miguel Angel ( 45' ), Alvaro ( 62' )


Possession:
FC Barcelona 63%

Levante UD 37%


Corner Kicks:
FC Barcelona 3

Levante UD 2


Shots on Goal:
FC Barcelona 15

Levante UD 7


Line-Up:
FC Barcelona (4-3-3): Valdes, Oleguer, Thuram, Milito ( Puyol, 46' ), Abidal ( Sylvinho, 63' ), Toure Yaya, Xavi, Deco, Iniesta, Messi ( Giovani, 52' ), Henry

Manager: Frank Rijkaard


Levante UD (4-4-2): Storari, Descarga, Alvaro, Bruno, David C., Juanma ( Ettien, 53' ), Miguel Angel, Berson ( Viqueira, 53' ), Savio (Geijo, 68' ), Riga, Rigano
Manager: Abel Resino


Match Report:

Thierry Henry was the centre of attraction as Barca sank Levante with another 4-1 goal margin after handing out same scoreline to Real Zaragoza in Camp Nou three days ago. Messi got the fourth to seal the fate of the bottom placed Levante.


FC Barcelona took over proceedings from the beginning of the match, with brief opposition from their host who soon caved in. After just 12 minutes, Gabriel Milito headed Deco's long ball into the path of Messi, but the Argentina winger arrived just too late and was unable to make contact. Deco then fired a free-kick over the bar from long range after 15 minutes as Barcelona began to dominate.


Two minutes later, in the 17th minute, Thierry Henry scored his first of three goals. Levante goalkeeper Marco Storari could only clear Deco's cross as far as Xavi, who quickly found Messi. Storari parried the Argentinian's shot, but Henry was at hand to fire home the rebound and score his first Primera Liga goal since arriving from Arsenal in the summer. Seven minutes later, Henry scored again. This time, Messi charged forward and squared for the unmarked Frenchman, who tapped home from close range to double Barcelona's lead. The duo combined well again just before half-time, but Messi saw his effort drift just wide on this occasion following Henry's exquisite pass.


The start of the second period saw the return of Barca captain Carles Puyol, who ended three frustrating months of inactivity when he replaced the injured Milito in the 46th minute. But it was all about Henry and the Frenchman completed his hat-trick just three minutes after the restart. The 29-year-old striker was left in acres of space by the Levante back line and coolly slotted home after good work from Deco on the right hand side. Two minutes later, Rijkaard's team went four up after a fine Messi solo effort. The Argentinian jinked past his marker and into the area after 51 minutes, before slotting home a low angled drive to leave Levante well-beaten and bag his sixth goal in four games.


It was to be the winger's last contribution to the match, after he was replaced - to a standing ovation from the visiting support - by young Mexico forward Giovani Dos Santos a minute later. Dos Santos had the ball in the net after 68 minutes, but the Mexican was deemed to be in an offside position and his strike did not count.


Barcelona continued to dominate, but Levante pulled a goal back five minutes later from the penalty spot after Puyol had brought down Alex Geijo.
Viqueira stepped up and fired past Valdes to reduce the tally by one goal. The goal was a consolation to the home team who were lucky not to have conceeded more goals than the four they had already done.

It's a third straight La Liga win for the Catalan giants.


My Comments:
Like Xavi said, we are now coming really close to the Barca we really want. The Blaugrana were all colours tonight, with French goal sensation, Thierry Henry shooting thre goals into the Levante net as a sure-fire sign that his best has only just begun. Barca will however be conscious they face a difficult opposition in their next game, which is an away match in Germany against hard-tackling VfB Stuttgart in the Champions League match day 2.


A repeat five star performance by Barca and another Thierry tri-star display will get the job done, not forgetting the magical Messi who is waiting to cast his spell on Stuttgart.