Messi milestone in Barca win
Argentine striker scores his 400th goal in Spanish League
Madrid, Spain - Lionel Messi scored his 400th Spanish League goal on Sunday, a total his coach Ernesto Valverde called "monstrous", as Barcelona terrorised Eibar 3-0 to reclaim its five-point cushion at the top of the table.
Messi drove the ball into the bottom corner after being teed up by Luis Suarez, who added two goals to his own tally either side of the Argentinian marking another historic record at the Camp Nou.
"It's monstrous," said Valverde, after the 3-0 victory. "It's easy to say but you have to score them one after the other, it's a long-term job. "His numbers are stratospheric, incredible. He is from another galaxy."
Victory saw Valverde's side restore its advantage over Atletico Madrid, who had briefly cut the gap to two points after beating Levante earlier in the day.
Real Madrid won too, beating Real Betis 2-1, to ensure Spain's big three all prevailed in the same round for only the fourth time this season. Real remains ten points adrift of Barcelona.
Messi, meanwhile, extends his own hefty lead as the divi- sion's all-time top scorer, which currently stands at 89 goals, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo, now at Juventus in Italy, owns a better goals-to-
game ratio, with his 311 strikes coming in 292 matches. Messi's quadruple century arrived in his 435th. Other result: Athletic Bilbao 2
Sevilla 0.
COPPA ITALIA Inter in quarters
Milan, Italy - Inter Milan cruised into the quarterfinals of the Coppa Italia on Sunday after beating second-tier Benevento 6-2 in a match played behind closed doors following the racist abuse of Senegal defender Kalidou Koulibaly last month.
Napoli will take on AC Milan in the last-eight after goals from Arkadiusz Milik and Fabian Ruiz saw off Sassuolo at the Stadio San Paolo in Naples on Sunday. Milan beat Sampdoria 2-0 on Saturday.
Earlier on Sunday two late goals from Federico Chiesa saw Fiorentina beat battling Torino. French League: Marseille 1 Monaco 1, Nantes 0 Rennes 1, Toulouse 1 Strasbourg 2, Dijon 1 Montpellier 1.