Barcelona and Ronald Koeman started the new season in LaLiga on Sunday evening with a big victory. In the official debut of the Dutchman on the bench, the Catalans triumphed with no less than 4-0 over Villarreal. Ansu Fati, who scored two goals and had a share in the 3-0, played a leading role. Barcelona played with a 4-2-3-1 line-up, in which Frenkie de Jong and Sergio Busquets played with the point back. The next game for Barcelona and Koeman is next Thursday, when a game with Celta de Vigo is scheduled in Balaidos.

In a first half where Villarreal was unrecognizable and unable to reach Neto’s goal, Barcelona laid the foundation for the big win. After fifteen minutes of play, Fati broke the spell: Jordi Alba was sent into depth by Clément Lenglet and put the ball down ready for the teenager from the back line, who worked the ball high in the left corner with a placed shot. Four minutes later, Sergio Asenjo again had to fail to answer a bet by Fati. Philippe Coutinho was allowed to make tens of meters from his own half unimpeded and gave the ball at the right moment to the free striker, who made it 2-0 with a low shot in the left corner.

Fati also had a share in Barcelona’s third goal ten minutes before half time. After physical contact with Mario Gaspar, the attacker went down in the penalty area and Lionel Messi signed for the 3-0 from eleven meters, despite the fact that Asenjo had the chosen angle right. Villarreal was spared nothing and was unluckily 4-0 just before half time. After a smart pass from Messi towards Sergio Busquets in the goal mouth, it was Pau Torres who worked the leather behind his own goalkeeper. The face of Unai Emery after the sound of the rest signal spoke volumes.

However, a monster victory at the Camp Nou failed to materialize. Barcelona also caused the most danger in an otherwise somewhat dull second half, with Antoine Griezmann perhaps as the biggest dissonance, but the scoreboard did not move further. Messi had the 5-0 on his foot twice, but each time Asenjo was on his guard. Koeman chose twenty minutes before time to make his first substitutions; Pedri and Ousmane Dembélé replaced Coutinho and Fati within the lines and less than ten minutes later Griezmann and Busquets made way for two debutants: Trincao and Miralem Pjanic.

However, Barcelona was not capable of more. At Villarreal, Takefusa Kubo, ex-Azulgrana, still appearing as a substitute, but Emery’s team suffered a hopeless defeat. In extra time, Asenjo still skilfully saved on attempts by both Trincao and Messi. For Emery, who is also making his debut el Submarino Amarillo the fat defeat was no surprise. In his fourteen visits to the Camp Nou, his teams scored only eight times and had to concede no fewer than 40 goals.