Lionel Messi broke the deadlock and Luis Suarez scored twice in the second half to give Barcelona a 3-0 win over River Plate in the Club World Cup final yesterday.
South American champions River, whose side cost only around five million euros in transfer fees, did enough to worry the European champions for the first half hour but were never in the contest after falling behind.
Messi, playing against an Argentine team for only the second time in his career, showed superb control to turn in Neymar’s header after 36 minutes.
Uruguay forward Suarez burst clear of the River defence four minutes after half-time and headed another from a pinpoint Neymar cross to take his tally in the tournament to five goals.
River made a promising start with Rodrigo Mora and Lucas Alario both getting into good shooting positions but producing weak efforts which were easily saved by Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo.
Messi had already been denied by Marcelo Barovero before scoring the opener and his goal was the cue for Barcelona to take the game by the scruff of the neck.
The European champions, fielding six South American players in their starting line-up, sliced through the River defence and looked as if they could score with almost every attack as they went on to win the title for the third time.
Capturing the Club World Cup caps a superb year for Suarez and Barcelona, who lifted five trophies in 2015, including the Spanish Primera Liga, the Copa del Rey, the UEFA Super Cup and the Champions League.
But the striker urged his side to learn from the mistakes of last year’s world champions Real Madrid, who failed to collect any more trophies in 2015.
“After an international competition like this there are always teams that drop off and enter into a bad run, so we must keep going,” Suarez said.
“The most important thing was winning the trophy, which is what everyone wanted to do.
“You have to try and help with goals and I was able to do that this time so I’m also happy about that,” he said on his double, which makes him joint-top scorer in the history of the tournament along with Messi and Cesar Delgado.
Third place play-off
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