Barcelona require little help to tear teams apart in this sort of sparkling form. AS Roma provided some unnecessary aid anyways by ceding too much space in midfield in Barcelona's rampant 6-1 victory at Camp Nou on Tuesday.
Roma failed to learn the lessons offered by Madrid's stretched performance in the 4-0 defeat to Barcelona on Saturday. Barcelona sliced through Madrid by exploiting the gulf behind Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez and Cristiano Ronaldo and overwhelming Toni Kroos and Luka Modric. It supplied a cautionary tale, particularly with Lionel Messi restored to the starting XI after his substitute appearance against Madrid.
The tactics were somehow even easier here with Roma desperately missing the injured Daniele De Rossi as a destructive presence in the center of the park. Roma dropped its midfield three too far and failed to apply any semblance of pressure on the ball in the middle third. The peculiar choice to cede ground provided Sergio Busquets (withdrawn at the break as a means of preservation after another sterling display) and Ivan Rakitic with complete dominion to do as they pleased in the first half and tempted Messi, Neymar and Suarez to drop deep and expose the high Roma line with diagonals over the top.
The combination of a high line and poor pressure on the ball left Roma hopelessly exposed. Neymar underscored the faulty logic with his sumptuous ball through the line to Dani Alves to prompt the first goal. The considerable quality of the delivery -- perfectly angled and weighted through the high line -- obscured the simplicity of its origin. It proved far too straightforward for the Brazilian maestro to locate the space in midfield and use it ruthlessly.
Barcelona added a second quickly after a sublime, 27-pass move ended with a Messi clip and proceeded through the rest of the match as if it were a training exercise. Messi and Suarez both scored twice as the defending Champions League winners eased to victory. In this sort of buccaneering form, they are nearly impossible to stop. Roma's futile and ragged attempts -- even with a modest improvement after the interval -- fell well short of the standards required to achieve the feat.
