Messi Doubles Streches Barca's Lead

Lionel Messi scored twice to take his season's goal total to 43 as Barcelona beat Eibar comfortably to open up a four-point lead at the top of La Liga.

Messi converted a 31st-minute penalty for Luis Enrique's side, who face Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday.

The Argentina forward headed in Ivan Rakitic's corner after half-time.

Federico Piovaccari hit the bar late on for Eibar, who are slipping towards danger after eight straight defeats.

Gaizka Garitano's side, three points above the bottom three, face a crucial trip to relegation rivals Granada next weekend.

Granada missed the chance to climb out of the relegation zone on Saturday as they were beaten 3-1 at Rayo Vallecano.

For Barcelona, this was just about as straightforward a victory as they could have hoped for ahead of two key home matches.

Enrique's side hold a 2-1 lead going into their last-16 second leg meeting with City, after which they will host second-placed Real Madrid in La Liga next weekend.

Real can reduce the gap at the top to one point by beating struggling Levante at the Bernabeu on Sunday.

Barcelona's boss rested centre-back Jeremy Mathieu and midfielder Javier Mascherano – probably with one eye on the Madrid game, as both are one booking away from a domestic suspension.

After a cagey opening half-hour, the visitors took the lead when Borja Ekiza was ruled to have handled deliberately in blocking a shot from Messi, who thumped the resulting penalty into the corner.

Eibar made a superb start to their first season in Spain's top flight after two successive promotions.

But they have lost momentum over the last two months and struggled to hit back here, with midfielder Javi Lara wastefully dragging a shot wide.

Only a smart block by Eibar keeper Jaime Jimenez stopped Neymar adding a goal from Messi's through ball early in the second half.

The Argentine soon eluded the home defence to head his 32nd league goal of the season from Rakitic's corner.

Substitute Piovaccari should have pulled a goal back for Eibar with two minutes to go, but bounced the ball against the underside of the bar from eight yards after driving his shot too hard into the ground.

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