Barcelona cruise past Viktoria Plzen in Champions League

Ferran Torres scored in each half as Barcelona eased past Victoria Plzen 4-2 in the Champions League on Tuesday but both sides were already eliminated from the competition.

Barcelona remained in third place in Group C behind Bayern Munich and Internazionale and will drop into the Europa League. Viktoria Plzen ended their European campaign without a point.

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"The assessment is negative at the end of the [Champions League] campaign," manager Xavi Hernandez said after the match. "We had qualification in our hands. You have to take your chances in this competition. Bayern and Inter took theirs. We were not able to win in Munich or Milan.

"Barca are among the favourites to win the Europa League. It is shaping up to be a really nice competition and the objective is to go all the way and win it. That is the challenge for the club and the team."

Barcelona, who rested a number of regulars including Poland striker Robert Lewandowski, struck six minutes into the match when defender Marcos Alonso poked the ball over the line after it squirmed past the Plzen goalkeeper.

The visitors doubled the lead just before the break when Jordi Alba deftly nodded the ball to the feet of an unmarked Torres, who calmly slotted the ball into the net for a goal initially ruled out before a VAR review.

The Czech champions briefly cut the deficit in half when Tomas Chory converted a penalty after winning a spot kick in the 51st minute before Torres nabbed his second of the night on the break minutes later.

Plzen responded with a glancing Chory header in the 63rd minute to potentially set up a nervy finish until Pablo Torre slammed a shot into the roof of the net on his Barcelona debut to wrap up the victory.

"Pablo [Torre] played well," Xavi said. "It was a difficult game for the midfielders. They had to attack spaces and that is not his main strength. He has other qualities, but he understood the game well and ended up scoring the fourth goal by attacking the space.

"He just had cramp after, nothing serious."