{"id":241575,"date":"2016-08-21T14:50:08","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T14:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=241575"},"modified":"2016-08-21T14:50:08","modified_gmt":"2016-08-21T14:50:08","slug":"suarez-nets-hat-trick-as-barcelona-rout-betis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=241575","title":{"rendered":"Suarez nets hat-trick as Barcelona rout Betis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luis Suarez scored a hat-trick on the opening day of La Liga as champions Barcelona thrashed Real Betis.<\/p>\n

Arda Turan opened the scoring for Barca from close range, before Ruben Castro levelled from a free-kick.<\/p>\n

Lionel Messi slammed home an excellent 22-yard strike before Suarez swept home from the edge of the box.<\/p>\n

Suarez scored the fourth, Messi drove home from distance and Suarez curled home a free-kick for his third, before Castro added a late consolation.<\/p>\n

Uruguay striker Suarez, last season’s La Liga top scorer with 40 goals, has now scored 17 goals in his past six league games.<\/p>\n

It was Barcelona’s third game of the season, having beaten Sevilla 2-0 and 3-0 in the two legs of the Spanish Super Cup.<\/p>\n

After the match, Barca confirmed “the beginning of an agreement with Manchester City for Claudio Bravo”, the 33-year-old keeper who played against Gus Poyet’s Betis.<\/p>\n

Real Madrid get their season under way at Real Sociedad on Sunday (19:15 BST), with Atletico Madrid hosting Alaves two hours later.<\/p>\n

Suarez continues scarcely believable form<\/h3>\n

Suarez was absolutely integral to Barcelona winning the title last season, scoring 14 goals in their final five La Liga games – all wins – including a hat-trick on the final-day 3-0 victory against Granada.<\/p>\n

Real Madrid would have been champions had Barca dropped points in any of those games.<\/p>\n

And the former Liverpool striker started off this season’s league campaign in similar fashion, with three good finishes, including an excellent free-kick.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Suarez’s past six La Liga games<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
4 v Deportivo La Coruna (8-0)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4 v Sporting Gijon (6-0)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1 v Real Betis (2-0)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2 v Espanyol (5-0)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3 v Granada (3-0)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3 v Real Betis (6-2)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Turan making most of Neymar absence<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\"Barcelona<\/div>\n<\/div>
Turan is enjoying life up front with Suarez and Messi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Suarez and Messi’s goalscoring heroics have come to be expected, Turan has been making the most of his opportunity to play up front with them.<\/p>\n

With Neymar playing at the Olympics for Brazil, the former Atletico Madrid player has been in the front three this season.<\/p>\n

The Turkey international, who was frequently a substitute or midfielder last season, was strongly linked with a move away in the summer, with reports Barca wanted to sell him.<\/p>\n

But he stayed and has now scored three goals in his past two games, more than in his previous 27 matches for the club. He also had a goal rightly disallowed for offside.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC SPort<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luis Suarez scored a hat-trick on the opening day of La Liga as champions Barcelona thrashed Real Betis. Arda Turan opened the scoring for Barca from close range, before Ruben Castro levelled from a free-kick. Lionel Messi slammed home an excellent 22-yard strike before Suarez swept home from the edge of the box. Suarez scored […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":241576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=241575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/241576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=241575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=241575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=241575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}