Thanks to Luis Suarez's hat-trick, FC Barcelona eased past Guangzhou Evergrande 3-0 here on Thursday to reach the final against River Plate from Argentina.

In the absence of two thirds of "MSN", Suarez managed to thump the Asian champions with three goals in the 39th, 50th and 67th minute.

Without Messi and Neymar, the European champions could have led earlier in the 23rd minute, but Munir's one on one was kept out by Li Shuai.

Guangzhou's left back Zou Zheng was injured in the 34th minute when he was out of balance and got his left leg seriously twisted.

Suarez opened the scoring for Barca in the 39th minute as the 28-year-old sent the loose ball home after Li Shuai denied Ivan Rakitic's long drive.

Guangzhou missed their best chance to equalize in the 40th minute, as Claudio Bravo refused Elkeson's header.

The second half finally went into Barca's rhythm. Finding Andres Iniesta's long through ball, Suarez got his second with left foot in the 50th minute.

The Uruguayan completed the hat-trick by converting a penalty after Guangzhou's skipper Huang Bowen fouled Munir inside the box.

"Suarez is a killer, a player who can finish off any kind of move," Barcelona's coach Luis Enrique said after the match.

"We were emphatic from the start. We hardly made any mistakes and prevented our opponent from creating any danger. It was a complete game and I congratulate my players for that," he said.

Guangzhou's coach Scolari had no regrets but respect for Barca.

"A lot of teams lose to Barca, even the biggest teams could be beaten 3-0 by Barca," he said.

"We finished fourth in 2013, now we have the chance to do better than that and finish third, that's our real target," the 67-year-old Brazilian added.

(Xinhua)