Barcelona warmed up for Saturday’s El Clasico against Real Madrid with a comfortable Champions League win against Dutch title holders Ajax.
In-form Neymar scored his seventh goal in his last five Barca appearances to put the Spanish leaders ahead, before Lionel Messi converted Andres Iniesta’s accurate pass to double the tally.
With this weekend’s trip to the Bernabeu in mind, Luis Enrique withdrew Neymar, Messi and Andres Iniesta in the second half as Barca began to relax.
That allowed Ajax to nick a late consolation through teenage forward Anwar El Ghazi, before Barca’s own young substitute Sandro Ramirez, who replaced Neymar, killed off any hope of a dramatic Dutch comeback.
Messi’s strike put him within two of Spanish striker Raul, who is the Champions League’s all-time leading scorer with 71 goals.
But the Argentina captain missed several other chances to move even closer to the Real Madrid legend as Barcelona dominated a poor Ajax side.
