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Rakitic the star as Barca win in Granada

Xinhua, March 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

Ivan Rakitic was the man of the match as FC Barcelona kept up their pursuit of Real Madrid in the BBVA Primera Liga table with a 3-1 win away to Granada.

The Croatian scored the opening goal of the game, before setting up Luis Suarez for Barca's second goal and then slipping the ball through for the Uruguayan to tee up Leo Messi for the third.

Barcelona made several changes from the side which won away to Manchester City in midweek with Sergio Busquets rested and Gerard Pique suspended, but there were no change in attack where Messi, Neymar and Suarez led the line.

Against a Granada needing points to climb out of the relegation zone and on a bumpy and dry pitch, Luis Enrique's side looked disjointed and lacking fluency and the first half chance fell to the home side although Jhon Cordoba was pulled up for offside.

Perhaps in keeping with the scrappy nature of the game, Rakitic opened the scoring after 25 minutes through a combination of a defensive error and good work from Suarez, who got round the back of the defense. Although his shot was going wide Cala tried to block it and only served to tee up the Croatian to slide home from close.

Roberto Ibanez volleyed over from close range just a minute later as Granada looked to get level and Javi Marquez forced a fingertip save from Claudio Bravo before Messi almost doubled Barca's lead from close range in the last minute of the half only to see his shot saved by former Barca B-team stopper, Oier Olazabal.

Suarez looked to have assured the points for Barca just three minutes after the break when he ran into the penalty area to latch onto Rakitic's through ball and slip it under the Granada keeper, but Granada got straight back into it from the penalty spot just four minutes later when Marc Bartra was adjudged to have fouled Lass.

Fran Rico made no mistake from the penalty spot even though Bravo guessed right.

Messi sealed the points for Barca when Suarez left him with a tap in after Rakitic had again split the Granada defense wide open to allow the Uruguayan to take the ball round Oier before squaring the ball for Messi to slide the ball into an empty net. Endi