Barcelona crush Espanyol in derby to retain lead

Barcelona crushed Espanyol in yesterday’s derby to retain the Liga lead.

Barcelona now enjoy a threepoint lead over sevilla who were held at Valencia, and Atletico Madrid who had an easy victory over Alaves.

Barcelona found littile difficulty to beat neighbours Espanyol in the Catalan derby.

There was no match between the two sides with Barcelona showing they are still a force to be reckoned with.

Barcelona took a three-goal lead by half time with Lionel Messi, Dembele and Luis Suarez obtaining their goals.

In the second half Lionel Messi scored another goal on 65 minutes.

Sevilla were held at Valencia to lose the pace with the leaders.

Sarabia shot Sevilla in front but Diakhaby snatched a dramatic equaliser for Valencia deep in stoppage time.

Atletico Madrid had joined Barcelona at the top of the Span- ish league with a 3-0 win over Alaves yesterday.

Nikola Kalinic, Antoine Griezmann and Rodrigo each scored a goal each to leave Atletico even with Barcelona ahead of its game at Espanyol later Saturday, when Sevilla, one point off the lead, visits Valencia.

Atletico was coming off two consecutive draws in the league. Alaves stayed fourth with the loss, its third in its last five league matches.

Kalinic opened the scoring from close range after a rightside cross by Santiago Arias in the 25th minute at Wanda Metropolitano Stadium. Griezmann added to the lead on a counterattack in the 82nd and Rodrigo sealed the victory in the 87th.

Atletico defender Lucas Hernandez had to be substituted in the 36th minute with a right knee injury.

He was replaced by Jose Maria Gimenez, who returned after missing five matches because of injury.