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Barcelona 4 - 0 Villarreal : Fati stars as Barcelona kick off Koeman reign with comfortable win

Barcelona kicked off the Ronald Koeman era in style with an impressive 4-0 home 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.

The hosts continued to dominate the game in the second half without managing to add to their hefty advantage.

(excerpt from ESPN Soccernet)