Ronaldinho inspires brilliant Barça

Ronaldinho inspires brilliant Barça

FC Barcelona forward Ronaldinho turned on the style as he steered his side to an emphatic 4-0 win at home against Villarreal CF that put the Spanish champions four points clear at the top of the Primera Liga on Saturday.

The Brazilian broke the deadlock in what had been an evenly-balanced match when he fired home from the spot after Eidur Gudjohnsen was adjudged to have been fouled in the penalty area ten minutes before the break. Gudjohnsen added a second early in the second half when he nodded in at the far post after the in-form Andrés Iniesta floated the ball across the area following a Ronaldinho free-kick. Iniesta then made it 3-0 with a spectacular finish when he threw himself at a Gianluca Zambrotta cross to volley the ball into the ground and send it skidding past a helpless Mariano Barbosa.

Spectacular finish

But he was outdone by Ronaldinho who put the icing on the cake when he scored his tenth league goal of the season two minutes from time. Lurking in the area with his back to goal, the Brazilian controlled a neat pass from Xavi with his chest and then looped a perfectly-weighted overhead kick beyond the reach of Barbosa and high into the net to bring the Nou Camp to its feet. The win left the champions top with 29 points from 12 games, four ahead of Sevilla FC who travel to Athletic Club Bilbao on Sunday and six clear of Real Madrid CF who are at Valencia CF.

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