La Liga wrap: Real, Barca roll on

The top two continued their dominance in La Liga with Barcelona and Real Madrid both enjoying crushing victories on Saturday.

Barcelona remain one point behind league leaders Real after they humiliated Almeria 8-0 at the Estadio de los Juegos Mediterraneos.

Almeria are struggling in the relegation zone with just nine points from 12 matches and showed why as they allowed Barcelona to run riot.

Argentine star Lionel Messi took his season tally to 13 goals with a hat-trick, while Bojan Krkic got two and Andres Iniesta and Pedro also found the back of the net.

Messi opened the scoring on 17 minutes and his strike was quickly followed by one from Iniesta and then an unfortunate own goal by Almeria defender Santiago Acasiete.

Pedro’s 35th minute goal and a second from Messi put Barca 5-0 up at the break, and he completed his hat-trick with a simple tap in on 67 minutes in between Bojan’s brace as Barca romped to victory.

It was a similar story at the Bernabeu, where Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick as Real Madrid crushed Athletic Bilbao 5-1.

After Barcelona had been so impressive in the early game, Real Madrid ensured they maintained their one point buffer at the top of the league with an easy victory at home.

Gonzalo Higuain opened the scoring in the 19th minute after holding off two defenders and beating Bilbao goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz with a well-placed shot, before Ronaldo got his first with a low drive in the 30th minute.

Fernando Llorente pulled one back for Bilbao five minutes before the break to give the visitors some hope, but they were soon extinguished when Sergio Ramos made it 3-1 from the penalty spot 12 minutes into the second half.

Ronaldo got his third five minutes later when Iraizoz misjudged his swerving free kick, and he completed his hat-trick and the rout with a penalty in the final minute.

In Saturday’s other game, third-placed Villareal and fourth-placed Valencia could not be split with the local rivals playing out a 1-1 draw.

Aritz Aduriz put Valencia ahead after 20 minutes, but Villareal got a second-half equaliser through Giuseppe Rossi with 17 minutes remaining.

Valencia had Marius Stankevicius sent off in the final 10 minutes, but the match finished 1-1.