Messi, Suarez lead Barca romp, Real crush Deportivo

Barcelona rode further away from their crumbling title rivals Sunday as Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez scored twice each in a 5-0 thrashing of Real Betis which opened up an 11-point gap at the top of the La Liga standing. A strike from Ivan Rakitic broke the home side's resistance in the 58th minute and top scorer Messi and the in-form Suarez took turn in adding to the scoring to cap a sixth successive league win for Ernesto Valverde's imperious team. Barca, the only unbeaten side in Europe's top five leagues, lead the way in La Liga with 54 points after capitalising on second-placed Atletico Madrid's 1-1 draw with Girona Saturday and third-placed Valencia's 2-1 defeat at Las Palmas. Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice before leaving the pitch with his face covered in blood as Real Madrid eased their domestic crisis by hammering struggling Deportivo la Coruna 7-1 Sunday to reclaim fourth spot.

20 games in... and @FCBarcelona remain UNBEATEN. ?#LaLigaSantander pic.twitter.com/SsusdVVd6U

— LaLiga (@LaLigaEN) January 21, 2018

Betis went into the game having scored eight goals in their last two league matches but had few opportunities against Barca, who turned on the style in the second half as they have done so often in this dominant campaign. It took a clever rolled pass from Suarez to release Rakitic for the opening goal, which the Croatian dispatched confidently while Messi took full advantage of a slack Betis offside trap to slot the second. The Argentine's second strike moved him on to 19 league goals while Suarez's brace took him to 15, 10 coming in his last seven La Liga games. The convincing display was also the perfect response after Barca had surrendered their 29-game unbeaten run in all competitions in losing to Espanyol in the King's Cup Wednesday.

⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽ ? Celebrating a magnificent 7⃣! pic.twitter.com/oFHdp3Tb2L

— Real Madrid C.F.?? (@realmadriden) January 21, 2018

Real had lost two of their last three league matches and got off on the wrong foot against relegation-threatened Deportivo when former Atletico forward Adrian Lopez put the visiting side ahead against the run of play in the 23rd minute. The stumbling La Liga champion responded in emphatic fashion, however, and went on to record their biggest win of the season in all competitions with two goals apiece from Gareth Bale, Nacho Fernandez and Ronaldo as well as a long-range strike from Luka Modric. Ronaldo was unable to continue playing after he was left with a bloodied face by the boot of Deportivo defender Fabian Schar as he struck his second goal, which took him level with Bale as Real's top scorer in the league with six strikes. Real climbed above Villarreal into fourth place on 35 points but are still 19 behind Barca.

⚽⚽ With that double @LuisSuarez9 reaches 100 goals in @LaLigaEN in just 114 matches! ? Well done, Luis! ? ?? pic.twitter.com/t0kDFcWwOf

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) January 21, 2018

RESULTSSociedad 1 (Jose 10) Celta 2 (Aspas 20-P, Gomez 75)Real Madrid 7 (Nacho 32, 88, Bale 42, 58, Modric 68, Ronaldo 78, 84) Deportivo 1 (Adrian 23)Alaves 2 (Munir 46, Pedraza 52) Leganes 2 (Gabriel 75-P, Zaldua 90)Betis 0 Barcelona 5 (Rakitic 59, Messi 64, 80, Suarez 69, 90)  MONDAY'S MATCHEibar v Malaga