Played well. Except for the tackle that got him a yellow card.
Curious that Messi's 2 assists today were preceeded by a pass from Busi. At least 4 of Messi's 5 assists were too. I remember the other 2 assists to Neymar.
RakiGOAT making Barca whole againNailed it. The Raki factor is making everyone look good venturing forward because he is so good tactically at covering. Cesc on the other hand just tried to go up as far as possible even though the other mids were also up there.
He has more freedom to take risks going forward to recuperate possession because now he has Rakitic to help him out and cover him. This is another subtle aspect Rakitic has brought to the team.
Busi's excellent reading of the game and the opponent allows him to make quick interceptions up the pitch and quickly unload them to attackers.
Busi and Rakitic have made a stellar partnership.
Nothing to do with Rakitic really. Busquets has done this multiple times in previous seasons, example being Valencia away last year as Ursegor pointed out and also vs Atletico a couple of years ago. I don't think he consciously thinks, 'hey now i have rakitic instead of xavi/cesc i can go up more'.
The games where he racks up 20+balls recovered are all due to his reading of the game and willingness to risk going forward and gaining the ball back quickly, and they all happened without Rakitic by his side.
They were actually talking on Revista about how Rakitic has helped Busquets. They said that last year Busquets was burdened with covering an ageing Xavi but Rakitic has now reduced his workload and allowed him to be more effective and play incisive passes to Messi.