Suarez nets hat trick as Barca rally; Ronaldo brace lifts Real Madrid

Published on: 24 February 2018

Girona took the lead inside three minutes at Camp Nou, but Barcelona responded quickly and often, putting six goals past the European hopefuls. Girona's early lead at Camp Nou was short lived as Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez orchestrated a masterful Barcelona win to continue their march toward the La Liga crown. Girona's early lead at Camp Nou was short lived as Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez orchestrated a masterful Barcelona win to continue their march toward the La Liga crown. Watch the full match highlights as Ronaldos brace and strikes from Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema helped Real Madrid keep their hopes alive in chasing to the top of the league. The hosts were much in control and the front three ran riot against a much-weaker Alaves defense. Watch the full match goals as the BBC was back in their zone and helped the Madridistas cruise past the weak Alaves side with a 4-0 win. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a brace as Benzema and Bale added two more.

Luis Suarez scored a hat trick as leaders Barcelona beat Girona 6-1 to extend their unbeaten league run to a club-record 32 games.

Barca found themselves 1-0 down after three minutes when Cristian Portu slid the ball beyond Marc-Andre ter Stegen to give the visitors a dream start.

But the hosts were back on level terms just two minutes later through Suarez and, after Lionel Messi had netted twice, the Uruguayan scored his second in the 44th minute to give the Blaugrana a 4-1 half-time lead.

Philippe Coutinho scored his first LaLiga goal for Barca in the 66th minute before Suarez completed his hat-trick 10 minutes later.

Barcelona sit 10 points clear of nearest challengers Atletico Madrid, who face Sevilla on Sunday.

Cristiano Ronaldo struck twice as Real Madrid thrashed Alaves 4-0 but selflessly gave up the chance for a hat-trick by handing over penalty duties to under-fire teammate Karim Benzema.

Ronaldo's goals in the 44th and 61st minutes sandwiched a strike from Gareth Bale and set in-form Real on course for a fifth successive victory in all competitions.

The red-hot forward was then seemingly presented with the opportunity to score his 13th goal in just over a month - and complete yet another treble - when Bale was brought down in the area late on.

However, Real's regular penalty-taker instead gave Benzema the chance to net for only the fourth time in LaLiga this season and potentially ease some of the pressure on him.

And the Frenchman took full advantage by slotting into the left corner to earn him a goal his performance deserved.

The victory means Zinedine Zidane's defending champions have now accumulated 18 points from their last seven league games - during which they have scored 30 goals -- to turn the heat up on second-placed Atletico Madrid.

Also on Saturday, Leganes ended a run of four successive defeats in all competitions but had to settle for a 0-0 draw at home to third-bottom Las Palmas.

Iago Aspas and Maxi Gomez, meanwhile, combined to condemn Eibar to back-to-back La Liga defeats as Celta Vigo eased themselves into seventh place in the table with a 2-0 win.

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Source: espn.co.uk

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