Fati stars in 4-0 win as Barca begin Koeman era

Soccer

Barcelona kicked off the Ronald Koeman era in style with an impressive 4-0 win against Villarreal in La Liga on Sunday.

Koeman, who has overseen the departures of several established names at the club this summer, named a starting XI that included Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann and Philippe Coutinho.

But it was young forward Ansu Fati who opened the scoring, firing home from a Jordi Alba pull-back in the 15th minute.

The 17-year-old, who was officially promoted to Barca’s first-team squad last week, added a second in the 19th minute after Coutinho led a counter-attack.

Messi added a third on 35 minutes, scoring a penalty after Fati was fouled by Mario Gaspar. Villarreal goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo got a hand to the spot-kick but was unable to stop it.

And Barca added a fourth before half-time when Pau Torres put Messi’s cross, intended for Sergio Busquets, into his own net.

In the second-half summer signings Pedri and Miralem Pjanic were given Barcelona debuts as the hosts controlled the game.

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