UEFA Champions League: FC Barcelona 3-0 BATE Borisov: Player Ratings

Consecutive clean-sheets in the Champions League will surely give ter Stegen’s confidence a boost, even though he wasn’t tested much by BATE in this one. He only had to fend off two shots on goal, making easy work of both. The young German’s highlight of the game was without a doubt the play near his right corner flag in which he looked in serious danger of conceding another silly goal, but was able to carry the ball past the BATE winger and calmly passed the ball forward.

I didn’t make a whole lot of notes of Alves’ game, which has recently become a pretty good omen for the Brazilian as these notes are usually of the negative nature. Alves combined well with Munir, after the youngster came on, but the two didn’t create much of note. Alves tried his luck with a long range shot, but his aim was poor. The Brazilian picked up a yellow card early in the second half for stopping a quick BATE counter.

Ah, Adriano… The full-back had a very energetic night in this one, but his final pass always seemed off target, leaving much to be desired, though he combined decently on the left side with his teammates throughout. Adriano even fired a good shot late in the first half, but he hit the outside part of the post. His performance dropped in the second half and he almost gave away a cheap penalty kick to the opposition for a silly (not called) foul.

A midfield metronome-like performance from Busquets. His passing was superb, completing 88 with an accuracy of 98% helped Barcelona keep control of the game and stop BATE from attacking. His defensive work also ensured clear BATE chances were restricted to a minimum as he made two tackles and three interceptions.

Rakitić started the game off a little suspect, showing signs of a player not in his best form. However he did recover and helped crate one of Barça’s early opportunities but he his evening was cut short when he pulled up with a calf injury. Early signs suggest he will be out for around a month.

Every game is a revelation. Now, I gladly eat my humble pie, while watching Sergi Roberto surprise me with each match. Hard work, an ability to see and execute passes (like when he released Suarez on the right for Barca's third goal) and the drive (while on the ball) whether playing in midfield, defense or as a winger is forcing us to agree with all the comparisons, is Sergi Roberto Barca's new Luis Enrique?

To dramatically understate his recent performances, Neymar versus Bate comes down to two goals (1 penalty and the other a tap in of sorts) and 1 assist. These three events, however, are a result of an increase in maturity and decision making in Neymar's game since Lionel Messi's injury. The penalty with that odd, one-step run-up seems to me, to be a proactive step taken by the player to change things up since he last missed a penalty and although I am not convinced it will work over the long term, right now Barca need to be scoring those and Neymar definitely has taken the responsibility and produced. The assist to Suarez and his final passes, in general have greatly improved unlike earlier when he seemed to hold onto to the ball a moment too long. The Brazilian's second goal was all about understanding his teammate's intentions, a great burst of pace that involved coming in from the wide areas to overtake the opponent's centre-back and finish.

To state that I am pessimistic about Barca's chances in the upcoming El Clasico without D10S is unfair to this team but I still think it will be extremely difficult. That said, the team has improved emphatically over the last 4 matches, as was promised to us by Lucho. Defensively, the Blaugrana kept another clean sheet but more importantly, they dominated the match in all aspects. Essentially, Barca are looking more like the team of last season and let's hope for more of the same.

By now Lucho must be thinking if he can get through one game without a losing a midfielder. Not that he had much choice what his early substitution will be, but he made the right call by moving Roberto to midfield. The rest of the game was fairly calm for the Spaniard.

In one of the biggest no-contests of recent weeks, Neymar, deservedly, won the Man of the Match award. There was a close race for second place though, where Suarez (9%) just edged out Busquets (8%) who had to settle for third.