LUIS SUAREZ made light of the absences of Lionel Messi and Neymar as his hat trick sent Barcelona into the Club World Cup final with a 3-0 win over Guangzhou Evergande Taobao on Thursday.

    Suarez seized responsibility for the European champions, pouncing on a rebound shortly before halftime to give Barca the lead before doubling the advantage with a well-taken second on 50 minutes in Yokohama.

    Guangzhou rarely showed signs of a fightback and Suarez blasted home a penalty to complete his treble — the first in the tournament’s history — on 67 minutes and secure the victory for Barca.

    It was not until the 23rd minute that Barca carved out their first clear chance, but Li Shuai was off his line quickly to block Munir El Haddadi’s effort after a brilliant through-ball from Andres Iniesta.

    Guangzhou was dealt a blow when Zou Zheng had to be stretchered off with what looked to be a potentially serious injury to his ankle and their task became even greater when Suarez opened the scoring after 39 minutes.

    Ivan Rakitic’s shot from distance was poorly parried by Li, allowing the on-rushing Suarez to steal in and fire high into the net from six meters.

    Suarez struck again just after the break to double Barca’s lead — and in some style. The Uruguay star laid the ball off to Iniesta and, after the captain’s measured chip over the top of the defense, he chested the ball down before poking it high into the far corner.

    Iniesta found the wrong side of the roof of the net with a fine curling effort from 20 meters as Barca began to enjoy their control over proceedings, and when Huang Bowen tripped Munir inside the box following Dani Alves’ brilliant no-look pass, Suarez took full advantage from the spot to complete his hat trick.

    Messi missed the semifinal against Evergrande because of abdominal pain, the Spanish club said.

    On Wednesday, South American champion River Plate booked a place in the Club World Cup final for the first time in 19 years by beating Sanfrecce Hiroshima 1-0.

    In the final Sunday, River faces Barcelona while Evergrande takes on Hiroshima in the third-place playoff the same day.

    (SD-Agencies)