Madrid, Barca demolish opposition

Barcelona: Real Madrid again made light of the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo as they crushed Deportivo la Coruna 6-2 to maintain the upper hand in the La Liga title race on Wednesday.

Madrid and Barcelona are locked on 78 points at the top of the table, but Real have a game in hand over their title rivals.

Barca remain top thanks to their better head-to-head record as Lionel Messi struck twice to relegate Osasuna in a 7-1 thrashing.

Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane made nine changes in all from the side that lost 3-2 to Barca on Sunday.

Alvaro Morata smashed home at the near post for the perfect start after less than a minute. James Rodriguez then added a second from Lucas Vazquez’s cross as Madrid threatened to run riot inside the first 20 minutes.

However, the European champions have now kept just one clean sheet in their last 15 games and their defence was breached once more when Florin Andone turned home Gael Kakuta’s mishit shot.

Vazquez, though, restored Real’s two-goal lead before half-time.

Morata unselfishly teed up Rodriguez for his second of the night before Isco sealed a stunning individual display by smashing home 13 minutes from time.

Joselu got another goal back for Deportivo with a fine looping header, but fittingly Real had the final say when Casemiro’s piledriver slipped under Deportivo ‘keeper Przemyslaw Tyton.

At the Camp Nou, Messi opened the scoring as he pounced on an error in the Osasuna defence to stroll through on goal and lift the ball over the advancing Salvatore Sirigu. Andre Gomes had arguably his best night in a Barca shirt as he drilled home Ivan Rakitic’s cross to make it 2-0 on the half hour.

Roberto Torres’ free-kick briefly brought Osasuna back into the game three minutes into the second half. Barca simply went through the gears with a four-goal burst in 10 devastating minutes.

Gomes and Messi competed their doubles Paco Alcacer also struck twice while Javier Mascherano scored his first ever goal for the club.

Results: Barcelona 7 (Messi 12, 61, Gomes 30, 57, Alcacer 64, 86, Mascherano 67-pen) bt Osasuna 1 (Roberto Torres 48); Leganes 3 (Neves 55, 61-pen, Guerrero 59) bt Las Palmas 0; Valencia 2 (Nani 68-pen, Zaza 72) lt to Real Sociedad 3 (Alves 1-og, Willian Jose 30-pen, Oyarzabal 65); Deportivo la Coruna 2 (Andone 35, Joselu 84) lt to Real Madrid 6 (Morata 1, Rodriguez 14, 66, Vazquez 44, Isco 77, Casemiro 87)