La Liga: FC Barcelona 3-0 Celta Vigo: Player Ratings

What a terrible way to end one's club career. Valdes is a Barcelona legend and legends shouldn't end their time with a club on a stretcher. In 24 minutes on the pitch VV was mostly a spectator, only having to make a single save, but that one save was enough for Valdes to land awkwardly, tearing his ACL.

Adriano spent most of the game up the field, helping his team in attack, where he oftentimes offered a good outlet to both Alexis and Messi. But his willingness to attack left his side exposed to counter attacks, but Celta wasn't able to expose him. It's great to see our full-backs contributing in attack, but this border-lined on reckless abandon and against better teams Barcelona surely would've conceded a goal or two down Adriano's side. Most of Adriano's defensive contributions came high up the pitch, though he did make several good clearances in the box on set-peices

Bartra was mostly solid defensively in this one, leading the team in tackles and interceptions, but there were a couple cases where he should've reacted better. For example, he was beaten cleanly by his former Barça B teammate, Andreu Fontas, a center-back by trade. But all in all it was a good performance by Bartra who also helped out Adriano on several occasions.

A very no nonsense game from El Jeficito who seemingly didn't put a foot wrong all game long. Positionally sound throughout the match, Mascherano just about dominated the left half of the defensive zone making several strong clearances. He might not have been mentioned much in match reviews, but that always seems to be a strong indicator that Mascherano had a good game.

Alba put in a surprisingly quiet performance on the left side of the pitch, but with Adriano playing as high as he was that was probably a good thing. As has been the case in the last few weeks Alba focused on his defensive game, making sure that nobody came close to the goal from his side. He was rarely seen in attack, but even when he was there he offered little "bite".

In the first half, the game seem to drift past Alex Song. He didn’t see much of the ball as Celta rarely seemed to get past their own halfway line. But in the second half as Celta became ever so slightly more dangerous, Song was there to help the back four making three tackles and two interceptions. Although his positing did sometimes seem a little off, his passing was good with a success rate of 97%.

A fairly comfortable game for Iniesta in which he was involved in both first half goals. To start, he found Messi who in turn found and Alexis which led to Barça’s opener. But the highlight of his game, and possibly the match, was a pinpoint, eye-of-the-needle pass to find Messi who rounded the keeper and scored the second. Iniesta left the field at half time as a precaution with Tata Martino casting an eye towards the weekend’s game.

A very defensive game for Fàbregas, making four tackles and one interception. Martino may have used this game to see how Cesc works in this role and whether he is ready to do it in the big games, from this games' evidence the answer would be yes. It would be beneficial for him if he did find a good balance between attack and defence as during the match he was rarely seen when Barça pushed forward. Having no shots himself, making no dribbles and just the one key pass. An overall good performance that was helped by his defensive contribution.

Another game in the Camp Nou, another big performance from Alexis Sanchez who got 2 assists on the night (both to Neymar; they seem to be building quite a chemistry on the pitch). The Chilean was full of energy and looking creative as opposed to being a threat on goal like other games this season which is fine by us. Alexis at his best is a truly exciting player to watch. The perfect combination of pace, creativity, dribbling and directness makes him a favorite to start in all home games where he has impressed this season. His first assist came when he squared the ball to Neymar early in the 1st half. The second was a magnificent pass from the RW to the LW which Neymar finished off.

The player with the most goals and assists in the calendar year, Lionel Messi is pretty much in unstoppable form since returning from injury. Better still, we are beginning to see his combination game with Neymar blossoming as well. That said, last night was quieter than the last couple of games where he scored "only one" goal and made the key pass for Neymar's first goal. Fact of the matter is, a fit Messi makes Barça a much more difficult team to beat.

Dramatic improvement by the Brazilian which suggests that his recent dip in form might turn out to be very short lived. Tata Martino has done well to give Neymar minutes while also subbing him out early to keep him fit. The Brazilian scored his first from a tap in after Alexis squared the ball in the box. His second goal showed his confidence was on the up in that, he didn't take the shot too early as he been inclined to do recently. Alexis once again found the Brazilian with a sublime cross from the opposite wing and Neymar obliged after taking a couple of touches, running into the box and finishing in the far post. In addition, he also looked to entertain the Camp Nou with some very nifty tricks.

Stepping in cold from the bench for the injured Valdes, Pinto had an excellent game making five saves on five shots he faced. That included an absolutely stunning double save early in the second half that could've turned the game upside down. Pinto will have to remain in top form for the rest of the season as with Valdes out for the year Pinto is now the No. 1 goalkeeper.

Sergi Roberto came on at halftime replacing Iniesta, and Barcelona's play suffered as a result. Missing was the flow that Iniesta offered. He also nearly gifted a goal to Celta, and, perhaps even more alarmingly, injured Pinto in the process, as his back pass was off the mark and caught Pinto flat-footed, but thankfully, everything worked out okay in this instance.

Pedro came on for the last 20 or so minutes. He worked hard in all areas of the game in that time, but wasn't able to make enough of an impact to warrant a full rating from me.

It wouldn't be difficult for the team to take this game too lightly considering the previous game was a barn-burner at the Santiago Bernabeu. However, everybody appeared to be up to the task at hand and made relatively easy work of Celta. Barça's tempo slowed down a bit in the second half, but with a comfortable lead in hand that was understandable. The fact that Iniesta was taken off at halftime was also a reason that Barcelona looked more "pedestrian", but when they wanted to they still easily threatened to score more goals.

Hard to find anything wrong with Tata Martino's game plan for this game as Barcelona were able to quickly take the lead and held it throughout the game. He was handcuffed mightily with substitutions with the injury to Valdes and the knock to Iniesta. I have to praise Tata for the way he's handled slight injuries to players this season as he showed no hesitation in taking the player of the pitch before a more serious injury could develop.

For the first time in a long time Messi has not been named Man of the Match by the Barca Blaugranes community. That honor this time went to the scorer of two goals, Neymar. Valdes also received a lot of votes, 24%, despite being forced to leave the pitch after just 24 minutes. My vote, however, goes to Alexis who had a whale of a game garnering two assists.