FC Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman praised his side’s fighting spirit and discipline after they eased to a 3-0 win at Celta Vigo on Thursday despite playing the entire second half with 10 men.

Barca defender Clement Lenglet was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 41st minute when Barca were 1-0 up thanks to an early strike from Ansu Fati.

But the Catalans played even better with 10 men.

They deservedly extended their lead through an own goal from Lucas Olaza, forced by a superb run by Lionel Messi, and a goal in added time from Sergi Roberto in torrential rain.

The 17-year-old Fati found the net against Celta with a neat touch with the outside of his foot from inside the area after a pass by Philippe Coutinho in the 11th minute.

Fati, who was added to the first-team squad this season, has quickly stepped up to take over the scoring role of striker Luis Suárez, who was let go by the club and joined rivals Atlético Madrid.

“I’m so proud of the team for how they played. We worked very well and played with a lot of discipline with one player less,” Koeman told reporters after a second win in a row to start the La Liga campaign.

“We are doing very well and results like this invite us to think we are on the right path.”

Barca were often over-powered by teams last season, none more so than in their humiliating 2-8 Champions League defeat by Bayern Munich, but they looked far stronger and fitter against Celta.

“We play like we train, you can tell that we are in a much better shape physically,” added Koeman.

“It’s not my business to talk about last season, I only care about this one but from day one.

“The players are hungry and motivated about redeeming themselves.”

Koeman also pointed to Messi’s willingness to sacrifice himself, adding:

“Messi worked very hard off the ball which was very important for us.”

‘Fired-up’ Messi

Defender Roberto praised his captain Messi as the Argentinean further demonstrated he has put his troubles with the club behind him.

“Leo is so fired up right now,” Sergi Roberto said.

“He ran so much and played out of his skin for the team.”

Messi has sought to draw a line under his efforts to leave the club over the summer as well as his vociferous criticism of president Josep Maria Bartomeu, saying in a recent interview that the time had come for everyone at the club to pull together.

He backed up his words with a tireless display against Celta, leading the team’s attacks as well as running himself into the ground to help them cope with having a man down.

“We’re so happy that Leo is still with us and the fact he is so motivated is a huge boost for us,” added Roberto. “It was very important we continued to play with positivity when we had one player less,” he said.

“We defended as a team, everyone did their job and we played with a lot of desire and showed we really want to achieve great things this season”

“We realised after the result against Bayern that we had to change things, we were fighting right up until the last minute.”

It was the first loss for Celta, who had a win and two draws from their first three games. They hadn’t lost to Barcelona at home in five years, with three wins and two draws in league matches.

Sevilla win late

Sevilla, Barcelona’s opponents in the next round, won their second in a row by defeating Levante 1-0 at home thanks to Youssef En-Nesyri’s goal two minutes into stoppage time.

En-Nesyri headed in a cross from Jesús Navas. Like Barcelona and Atlético Madrid, Sevilla had their first two league matches postponed because of their participation in European competitions in August.

Promoted Cádiz won 1-0 at Athletic Bilbao despite finishing the match with nine men because of red cards. The winner came with a 57th-minute own-goal by Athletic midfielder Unai López, who on Sunday scored twice to lead his team to victory at Eibar.