BARCELONA: Ousmane Dembele scored and laid on a hat-trick of assists for Sergi Roberto, Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres as Barcelona ripped apart Athletic Bilbao 4-0 in LaLiga on Sunday.

Barcelona remain second in the standings on 28 points, three behind leaders Real Madrid and five clear of third-placed Atletico Madrid.

French winger Dembele was at his thrilling best after being brought back into the side and challenged to make the difference by his coach Xavi Hernandez, ruining former Barca manager Ernesto Valverde’s return to Camp Nou.

Dembele netted the opener with a towering header from close range in the 12th minute and then created goals for Roberto in the 18th and Lewandowski four minutes later as Barca danced around Athletic.

Torres fired home in the second half after Dembele found him in the area to complete the drubbing.

Earlier Antoine Griez­mann hit a brace, including one goal direct from a corner, to earn Atletico a 2-1 win at fifth-placed Real Betis.

Griezmann opened the scoring in the 54th minute, from a perfectly-placed corner kick that curled past goalkeeper Rui Silva and several defenders into the net.

Fifteen minutes later, substitute Matheus Cunha passed to Griezmann whose right-footed shot on goal went through Silva’s legs and into the bottom right corner.

Betis rallied to score with a Nabil Fekir free kick from the edge of the box into Jan Oblak’s top left corner in the 84th minute but Atletico held firm.

Elsewhere, Villarreal win­ger Alex Baena was sent off for lifting his shirt to reveal a tribute message to late club vice-president Jose Manuel Llaneza during a 2-1 win over Almeria.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2022