Barcelona closed the gap on Real Madrid to just a single point after the La Liga giants eased past Atheltic Bilbao at the San Memes.
Messi opened the score line in the 15th minute when the Argentine magician managed to beat Iraizoz with a free-kick from 25-yards out that took a slight deflection off the Bilbao wall. The Athletic keeper managed to get a hand on the ball but it wasn’t to stop the ball from trickling into the back of the net to give Barca an early lead. Aduriz almost scrambled an equaliser for the hosts when Lopez sent in a great ball into the box and the striker stretched out to meet the ball but Bravo made a fantastic save to deny Aduriz. Suarez thought he had made it 2-0 but Iraizoz pulled off one of the saves of the season as the former Liverpool striker headed from 6-yards out, but Iraizoz tipped the ball over the bar with an amazing one handed save.
Suarez repaid for his earlier miss when the Uruguayan striker neatly tucked the ball past Iraizoz in the 26th minute to double Barcelona’s lead when Messi and Suarez led a Barca counter attack and on the edge of the Bilbao penalty box, Messi laid the ball off to Suarez who slotted the ball past the Bilbao keeper at the far post. Barcelona should had made it 3-0 when Messi split the defence to put Xavi through on goal, the veteran playmaker skipped past the keeper but his cross into the centre of the box caused a goal scramble that saw Neymar and Busquets failing to capitalize on the lose ball and eventually the ball was cleared. Aduriz’s header in the 32nd minute then hit the post when Pique’s clearance found the head of Aduriz inside the penalty box, and with the goal wide open, the Spanish striker could only hit the inside of the post to keep the score at 2-0.
The second half kicked off and during a quite opening 15 minutes of football from both teams a crazy phase that lasted 6 minutes saw 4 goals being scored between Athletic and Barcelona. Rico pulled one back for Bilbao in the 60th minute when Aduriz’s shot was saved by Bravo, but the ball fell straight to Rico and the central midfielder tapped the ball into an empty net to salvage something for the hosts. However Barcelona responded quickly as Suarez clipped the ball into the Bilbao penalty box to find Messi who hit the ball with his thigh and the shot deflected off De Marcos and into the back of the net to make it 3-1. Neymar wrapped up the match one minute later when Rakitic and Messi caught Bilbao on the break and Messi once again laid the ball of for Neymar who curled the ball past Iraizoz to make it 4-1 to the visitors.
Aduriz had other plans when the striker bursts through on goal in the 66th minute and brilliantly finished the ball past Bravo from an extremely tight angle to take his tally up to 14 goals this season. Bilbao where reduced to 10 men in the 75th minute when Etxeita’s high foot stabbed Suarez in the thigh and the Bilbao midfielder received a straight red for his foolish challenge. Substitute Pedro put the nail in the coffin for Bilbao when Messi brilliantly danced around the Bilbao penalty box to set up Busquets who played the ball across goal to Pedro who tapped the ball into an open net to put Barcelona just a point behind.