Barcelona thrashed Sevilla 4-0 at the Camp Nou to move up to second in LaLiga, two points behind arch-rivals Real Madrid. The match was as good as settled during an eight-minute spell in the first half when Barcelona scored three times.
Luis Suárez broke the deadlock with a brilliant overhead kick in the 27th minute before Arturo Vidal and Ousmane Dembélé struck twice in quick succession.
Lionel Messi wrapped up an 11th successive home league win when he curled home an unstoppable free-kick with 12 minutes left, although a resounding victory was soured somewhat for Barcelona by the dismissal of two players in the final three minutes.
Ronald Araujo, having come on in the 73rd minute to make his first-team debut, was sent off after being adjudged to have brought down Javier Hernández when last man, and Dembélé followed him back to the changing room moments later, seemingly for something he said to the referee.
Despite those late setbacks, Barcelona moved into the top two above Atletico Madrid, who suffered more frustrations as they were held to a 0-0 draw at Real Valladolid. Diego Simeone’s men have now recorded three goalless draws in their last four matches to slip three points behind city rivals Real.
Basque rivals Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao also fell further adrift of the pacesetters this weekend after both slumped to second successive defeats, going down to Getafe and Celta Vigo respectively.
Fifth-placed Sociedad, looking to bounce back from a 3-2 loss at Sevilla, took a fifth-minute lead through Mikel Merino but the 53rd-minute dismissal of Diego Llorente changed the direction of the match.
Jaime Mata levelled 15 minutes later and Nemanja Maksimovic snatched an 89th-minute winner for the visitors.
Athletic, beaten at Valencia last time out, went down to a 74th-minute Iago Aspas goal at Balaídos to remain seventh.
At the other end of the table, Real Mallorca leapfrogged Espanyol and climbed out of the bottom two after beating the Barcelona-based outfit 2-0.
Ante Budimir put the promoted islanders ahead just before half-time and Salva Sevilla secured their second win of the campaign 17 minutes from the end.
