Barca Widen Lead to Eleven Points

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Lionel Messi continued his impressive run by scoring two goals in Barcelona’s 4-0 win over Eibar, keeping his team unbeaten and maintaining a comfortable lead entering the final stretch of the Spanish league.

A Munir tap-in, two Lionel Messi strikes and Luis Suárez’s well-taken fourth saw off Eibar to send Barcelona 11 points clear at the top of La Liga

Messi scored with a dribble and low finish shortly before half-time and added a penalty in the 76th minute, giving Barcelona a provisional 11-point advantage over Atlético Madrid, who play at Valencia later on Sunday.

Lionel Messi has scored 15 goals in the last 10 matches, and eight in the past four. Munir El Haddadi opened the scoring in the eighth minute after a cross by Luis Suárez, who registered his league-leading 26th goal in the final stages.

It was Barcelona’s 11th successive win in the league and extended the club’s unbeaten run to 36 games in all competitions.

Javier Mascherano’s late booking means he will be suspended for next week’s game against Getafe, while Marc Bartra’s introduction moves him onto 100 appearances for the club.

The latest victory for the Catalans puts them eleven points clear of Atlético Madrid before their tricky trip to Valencia on Sunday night.

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Mascherano Holds Out on Tax

Javier Mascherano has decided against commuting the one-year prison sentence that he received for tax fraud in Spain to a fine. 

The Barcelona player refused to pay the 280,000-euro penalty that the judge suggested because he believed the amount to be excessive. Mascherano, did admit to tax fraud and paid the Spanish tax authorities the amount they had claimed before the case even reached court. In the end the former Liverpool player  was only willing to part with 21,000 euros. 

Spanish radio station CadenaSER reported that the figure suggested by the Argentina international was accepted by the public prosecutor, but not by the tax authorities' lawyers, who deemed it insufficient and demanded a bigger sum from the investigating judge. 

With a one-year jail term hanging over him, Mascherano has already been forced to pay a separate 815,000-euro fine, also return the 1.5 million euros that he owed in tax and cover the legal costs.

The Barcelona star made all the payments quickly and then attempted to cut a deal for a financial arrangement to override the jail sentence, despite the fact that he was never going to have to serve it because it was his first and was for less than two years. 

Mascherano's refusal to pay the fine suggested by the judge will delay the trial and means he will have to avoid committing any other crimes over the next year in order to stay out of prison.

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Barcelona Back on Top

Barcelona leapfrogged Atlético Madrid to go top of La Liga after Lionel Messi’s acrobatic volley secured a hard-fought 2-1 victory against a tenacious Málaga on Saturday.

Munir El Haddadi, deployed up front in place of the injured Neymar, put Barça ahead in the second minute at the Rosaleda Stadium on the south coast after smart work from Luis Suárez.

However, the visitors were unable to exert their customary control and 12th-placed Málaga, whose relentless pressing unsettled the Spanish and European champions, netted a deserved equaliser in the 32nd minute.

Javier Mascherano surrendered possession in a dangerous area and the ball fell to the midfielder Juanpi, whose shot was deflected in off the former Liverpool player as he slid across to block.

Messi was back in the side after sitting out Wednesday’s 2-1 Copa del Rey triumph at Athletic Bilbao as a precaution but the Ballon d’Or winner was largely anonymous in the first half.

Barça were much improved in the second period and took a 2-1 lead in the 51st minute when Messi cracked Adriano’s cross past the home goalkeeper, Carlos Kameni.

The Argentina captain was falling away from the ball as it dropped and he caught it perfectly on the volley to send it arrowing into the corner for his 11th goal of an injury-disrupted campaign.

The Barça keeper, Claudio Bravo, then did well to palm away a shot from Ignacio Camacho in the 73rd minute and Kameni denied Messi a second with a superb one-handed save two minutes from time.

“We perhaps didn’t deserve to be drawing 1-1 at the break considering what we did and what they did in the first half,” Barça’s captain, Andrés Iniesta, told Spanish television.

“We didn’t feel comfortable and Málaga were very well organised and made the most of it when we gave the ball away,” added the Spain international. “It shows how difficult it is to win in La Liga.”

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Suarez Hatrick Sinks Eibar

Luis Suárez scored a hat-trick as Barcelona moved up to second in La Liga behind Real Madrid on goal difference, with a 3-1 triumph over Eibar at the Nou Camp.

The Basque minnows took a shock lead after eight minutes through the in-form Atlético Madrid loanee Borja Bastón. But Suárez levelled midway through the first half and then struck at the start and end of the second to complete his treble and seal the points for Barça, who had Javier Mascherano sent off late on.

Luis Enrique’s side joined their rivals Real – 3-1 winners at Celta Vigoon Saturday – on 21 points at the summit, while Eibar went away reflecting on their second league defeat of the season.

In the late kick-off Atlético defeated Valencia 2-1 to stay within two points of Real and Barça. The home side’s pressure grew during the first half and goals from Jackson Martínez and Yannick Carrasco were the least they deserved.

A 72nd-minute penalty from Paco Alcácer gave his side hope of stealing a point but the hosts held on.

Villarreal earlier fell further off the title pace as they were held to a drab 0-0 draw at lowly Las Palmas. They slipped four points behind the top two, while Las Palmas moved up to third from bottom – ahead of Granada and Levante on goal difference.

David Moyes’ Real Sociedad climbed clear of the relegation zone and up to 14th with a thumping 4-0 win at 10-man Levante.

Carlos Vela set the visitors on their way and rounded off the scoring late in the second half. Between times Imanol Agirretxe double the visitors’ lead before half-time and Asier Illarramendi grabbed his first goal since returning to the club.

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Beaten Carlo Backs Bale

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Carlo Ancelotti defended Gareth Bale despite his low-key performance in the 2-1 El Clasico defeat by Barcelona.

The 24-year-old winger began the game in an unfamiliar position as a striker in what was only his second start of an injury-hit season.

The £85m summer signing was replaced by Karim Benzema after an hour.

Ancelotti said: "He played well and needs to look for his team-mates' runs. He didn't play badly during that hour."

Bale joined Real from Tottenham for a world record fee in the summer but foot and thigh injuries have restricted his playing time.

Ancelotti added: "I think they are his first matches and he needs to get used to playing with his team-mates, which is normal.

"It doesn't make much difference for him to play on the right or in the middle. We started like that to put more pressure on Sergio Busquets, but after 20 minutes I changed his position to the wing to give him more room."

Former Chelsea boss Ancelotti, who was experiencing his first Clasico, was adamant that Real should have been awarded a penalty when forward Cristiano Ronaldo went down under the challenge of defender Javier Mascherano with 20 minutes remaining.

"Naturally the penalty was very clear for me. I think everyone saw it. The only person that didn't see it was the referee," he said.

Ancelotti also explained why he placed Spain defender Sergio Ramos in midfield.

"I played him there to look for balance in the middle of the park. I asked him about it before and he said he wanted to play there, so I put him in," continued the 54-year-old.

"I didn't play defensively - [Luka] Modric isn't a defensive midfielder, and Marcelo, [Dani] Carvajal and Cristiano and [Angel] Di Maria are attackers. Barca did not play with any more attackers than we did."

The ex Paris St-Germain manager said he was pleased with the performance of his team despite the result.

"It's a fantastic game and atmosphere. I think it was a good game, and we showed we can play well against a fantastic team," he added.

"Of course you want to win this kind of game but at the moment we are improving and this game proves that."

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