Barcelona have got back on track in the Spanish league by overwhelming Valencia with four different players scoring in the first 24 minutes of a 7-1 rout.
Frenkie de Jong opened the scoring in the third minute, Ferran Torres added to the lead in the eighth, Raphinha found the net in the 14th and Fermín López struck in the 24th at Montjuic stadium.
López added the fifth in first-half stoppage time as Barcelona ended the first half with a 5-0 lead.
Valencia got their goal with Hugo Duro in the 59th before Barcelona scored again with Robert Lewandowski in the 66th and an own-goal by César Tárrega in the 75th.
Sunday’s victory moved Barcelona within three points of second-placed Atletico Madrid and seven points off leader Real Madrid, who won 3-0 at Valladolid on Saturday with a hat trick by Kylian Mbappé. Atletico were held 1-1 by Villarreal on Saturday.
“We hadn’t been doing well in the league and we needed to bounce back with a victory like that,” López said. “We have to keep fighting.”
Barcelona were coming off victories in the Champions League, Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup, but had been winless in their last four league games.
Hansi Flick became the second-fastest coach to reach 100 goals with Barcelona, who has now scored 101 goals in 32 games in all competitions under the German. Helenio Herrera reached the mark in 31 matches in the 1950s.
Luis Enrique and Tito Vilanova each needed 34 games to reach the 100 mark, three quicker than Pep Guardiola at 37 matches.
Barcelona have scored five goals or more in four of their last five games across all competitions. They were coming off a 5-4 win over Benfica in the Champions League, and beat Real Betis 5-1 in the Copa del Rey and Real Madrid 5-2 in the Spanish Super Cup.
Valencia are 19th in the 20-team standings. The club had the return of defender Mouctar Diakhaby 11 months after he sustained a serious knee injury.
“The only positive from this game was the return of Diakhaby,” Valencia coach Carlos Corberán said. “We all know how important he is for us.”
Midtable Real Sociedad fell 3-0 at home against 14th-placed Getafe, losing for the third time in a row across all competitions.
Randy Nteka scored in the 80th and 83rd minutes as seventh-placed Rayo Vallecano came from behind to beat eighth-placed Girona 2-1.
Fourth-placed Athletic Bilbao was held to a 0-0 home draw against struggling Leganes.
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