Barcelona, March 17 (IANS) Real Madrid will entertain FC Barcelona in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium next Sunday with a lead of four points after the 28th round of matches in La Liga.
Barcelona responded in the best possible fashion to their rivals’ win Saturday with one of their best performances to brush past Osasuna 7-0 in Camp Nou.
Lionel Messi bounced back to his best to score a hat-trick Sunday, reports Xinhua.
Alexis Sanchez, Andres Iniesta, Pedro Rodriguez and Cristian Tello also got on the scoresheet. Neymar and Cesc Fabregas were left on the subs’ bench.
Failure to win would have left Barcelona 6-7 points behind Real Madrid. But the win means a victory in their rivals’ backyard would leave them just one point off the top of the table.
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Barcelona started slowly. But once Messi opened the scoring (18th minute), goals continued to arrive at regular intervals. Messi completed his hat-trick two minutes from time.
The win ends a good week for Barcelona who also qualified for the Champions League quarterfinals Wednesday by beating Manchester City 4-1 on aggregate.
