Arda Turan scored a hat-trick as Barcelona finished their Champions League Group C campaign with a 4-0 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach at Camp Nou on Tuesday night.
Barcelona entered the match having already qualified for the round of 16 as winners of the section, while Gladbach had already secured third and will continue their European journey in the knockout stage of the Europa League despite only winning one of their six group matches.
Only three players kept their spot in the Barcelona XI from El Clasico at the weekend, with Jasper Cillessen, Aleix Vidal, Lucas Digne and Paco Alcacer among those given chances to impress for the Catalan giants.
Gladbach boss Andre Schubert also shuffled his pack from his team's 4-1 defeat to Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga at the weekend as Raffael, Oscar Wendt and Christoph Kramer all started on the bench, but Thorgan Hazard, who scored in the reverse match in September, was in the away side's XI.
Both teams threatened in the opening 10 minutes of football, with Andre Hahn causing Barcelona problems with his movement in the final third and Lionel Messi pulling the strings down the other end of the field.
Messi had Barcelona's first real chance of the match in the 13th minute after a low cross from Turan, but the Argentine somehow neglected to make contact. Messi was not to be denied, however, and sent the home side ahead just three minutes later with a cool finish after Turan had found his teammate in space once again.
The Catalan outfit could have had two or three by the 30-minute mark as Messi, Andres Iniesta and Turan all came close, but a couple of smart saves from Gladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer kept the score down to 1-0 entering the later stages of the first period in Spain.
Barcelona continued to utterly dominate matters as the first 45 minutes drew to a close, and it was a first half that saw an overwhelmed Gladbach fail to register a single shot on target as they struggled to lay a glove on the dominant hosts.
Gladbach actually started the second period with a bit more belief, but Barcelona had their second of the night in the 50th minute when Denis Suarez's cross looped towards the back post and Turan was on hand to head home from close range.
Less than three minutes later, it was 3-0 Barcelona as Vidal raced down the right before delivering a low cross into Turan, who steered the ball into the bottom corner to double his tally for the night.
Alcacer should have scored his first Barcelona goal just before the hour after finding all sorts of space inside the away side's box, but the striker's wait continued as he fired straight at Sommer from close range.
Turan was not to be denied, however, and completed his hat-trick in the 67th minute when the attacker turned a low Alcacer cross into the back of the net as Gladbach caved under the pressure once again.
Sommer made a brilliant save to prevent Messi from heading Barcelona 5-0 ahead 15 minutes from time, and the pace of the match dropped in the latter stages as the home side absolutely breezed past the Bundesliga side to make it five wins from six Group C matches.
Next up for Barcelona is a trip to Osasuna in La Liga on Saturday afternoon, while Gladbach will attempt to record their first victory since the end of October when they welcome Mainz 05 in the Bundesliga on Sunday afternoon.
