Lionel Messi’s double stretches 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.

-BBC

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ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson

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An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.

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