Messi´s travel-sick Barcelona go five points clear

Champions Barcelona shrugged off a five-hour train and coach journey to clinch a 3-0 win at Osasuna on Saturday, maintaining their perfect away record to go five points clear of Real Madrid at the top of the Spanish first division.

Lionel Messi scored a second-half brace with his 14th and 15th league goals of the season after creating the 25th minute opener for Pedro Rodriguez as Barcelona built on Monday’s 5-0 Clasico drubbing of Real by notching their eighth consecutive league win.

Real and their coach Jose Mourinho hope to put their Barca mauling behind them and close back to within two points with a home win over Valencia later on Saturday.

Barcelona were full of confidence after their demolition of Real five days ago.

However, they saw their Osasuna preparations turn into a nightmare when the Spanish Football Federation reversed their initial decision to postpone the match to Sunday after an air traffic controllers strike, which had paralysed the country, prevented Barca from flying.

That forced the Catalan giants to undertake a hastily-arranged five-hour train and coach journey that saw kick-off delayed by 50 minutes.

“The (Spanish Football) Federation didn’t keep their word because they told us that if there weren’t any flights the game wasn’t going to go ahead,” said Barcelona midfielder Sergi Busquets.

“We found it difficult to get into the game because it had been a hard day but we got the three points at a difficult ground.”

Coach Pep Guardiola fielded the same starting XI that crushed Real 5-0 in Monday night’s Clasico and the visitors almost scored in the fifth minute with David Villa inches away from latching onto Pedro’s low centre.

With 25 minutes gone the goal arrived with Messi feeding a pin-point pass to World Cup winner Pedro who arrived on cue to dispatch a fine finish into the corner.

Three minutes later Messi was wreaking havoc again, crashing a shot off the post and then forcing a low save as Barcelona turned the screw.

Osasuna were forced to do a lot of ball watching with their only chance in the first half coming from a poor kick from Barca goalkeeper Victor Valdes, but Fernando Soriano could only shoot weakly.

Barcelona were not as slick in the second half but got the second goal they wanted on 64 minutes when Villa fed Messi who sprinted away from his marker before sliding in a neat finish.

Eight minutes from time Messi was fouled in the penalty area and the Argentine picked himself up to convert the spot-kick for his 15th goal of the season to top the scoring charts.

Real need to respond by maintaining their flawless home record with another victory over Valencia later on Saturday and can call on top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo, who has overcome an ankle injury.

Valencia are fifth, eight points behind Real, and hope to become the first team to beat Mourinho’s Real at the Santiago Bernabeu.

In other matches, Atletico Madrid’s poor form continued with a 2-0 loss at Levante.

It was a third successive loss for Atletico, the Europa League holders, following 3-2 home defeats by Espanyol and Greek side Aris Salonika and the club now lie in seventh place, five points off the top four.

Victoriano Nano gave Levante a second-minute lead after Atletico failed to defend a corner and Ecuador forward Felipe Caicedo, on loan from Manchester City, scored a fine goal on 58 minutes for his fifth strike of the campaign.