Barcelona's David Villa celebrates his goal against Deportivo Coruna during their Spanish First Division soccer match at Riazor stadium in Coruna January 8, 2011.
MADRID, Jan. 8 -- FC Barcelona's flight into the airport at A Coruna suffered serious turbulence this Saturday, but that was the only scare the Barca players had in the day as they cruised to a 4-0 win away to Deportivo la Coruna.
If the rainclouds shook Barca's players up on the 60 minute flight, it was far more than the Deportivo players managed during the 90 minutes of the match in which they barely managed a shot on the Barca goal.
At the other end David Villa, Leo Messi, Iniesta and Pedro all scored to show once again Barcelona are almost impossible to stop when they are able to combine their passes in midfield and attack.
Barca coach Pep Guardiola rested Xavi Hernandez, Sergio Busquets and Dani Alves following his side's cup tie in Bilbao during the week. Javier Mascherano and Seydou Keita started in midfield against a Deportivo side that looked to pressure Barcelona hard in midfield.
Barcelona were lacking fluidity in their play, but still controlled around 70 percent of the possession with the aim of wearing their rivals down.
Chances were slow in arriving, but Barcelona looked to be content to play a waiting game.
Messi was looking uncomfortable for Barcelona and the league leaders' best efforts were shots from outside of the penalty area as they began to look increasingly static in midfield as the half progressed.
However, Messi sprang to life after 26 minutes with a pass to Villa, who scored with a low shot from a tight angle. It was the striker's 150th goal in the Primera Liga.
It was far from vintage Barca, but Villa almost added a second on the break after 34 minutes before Abidal had a goal ruled out for a tight offside four minutes later.
Everything changed in the second half and the result was never in doubt from the moment Messi doubled Barca's lead with a magnificent 25-yard free kick seven minutes into the second half.
Barcelona were in total control of the ball as Deportivo looked tired after playing a two hour Copa del Rey game against Cordoba in midweek and after chasing the ball around their own pitch for the greater part of the game.
The home fans even began chanting the name of Barca midfielder Andres Iniesta and the man who scored the winning goal in the World Cup final responded by scoring his side's third of the night 10 minutes from time.
Pedro made it 4-0 a minute later with a delicate chip and that was the moment for Guariola to hand a league debut to new signing Ibrahim Affelay.
(Reuters)
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