Mallorca 0 : 3 Barcelona - Barcelona too strong for Mallorca

Posted Saturday, February 26, 2011 by PA

Lionel Messi, David Villa and Pedro Rodriguez were all on the scoresheet as Barcelona saw off Real Mallorca 3-0 to power on at the top of the Primera Division standings.

Messi gave Barca a first-half lead with his 26th league goal of the season before second-half strikes from Villa and Pedro helped Barca provisionally move eight points clear of second-placed Real Madrid, who play Deportivo La Coruna later this evening.

Barca were without key quartet Xavi, Carles Puyol, Victor Valdes and Dani Alves through a mixture of injury and suspension and they looked set for a testing night at the Iberostar Stadium as Michael Laudrup's Mallorca started brightly.

Valdes' replacement Jose Pinto was the busier of the two goalkeepers early on as Pierre Webo and Jose Luis Marti tried their luck, although it was Barca who created the first decent chance of the match in the 31st minute.

Messi and Andres Iniesta cut open the Mallorca defence with a quick one-two but the Argentina ace side-footed his shot just over with only Dudu Aouate to beat.

Messi will probably feel he should have tucked that chance away, but the FIFA Ballon d'Or winner made amends with his next opportunity seven minutes later as he put Barca ahead.

Seydou Keita created the opening with a superb chip over the Mallorca defence which Messi raced onto and, after his first touch deflected the ball up into the air, he sent a looping header over the stranded Aouate and into the net.

That goal left Messi two clear of Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the scoring charts.

In third place on that list is Villa, who took his own tally for the Primera Division campaign to 17 just before the hour-mark to put Barca 2-0 ahead.

The offside flag stayed down as Sergio Busquets put his Spain international team-mate clear through the middle and Villa did the rest, skipping past Aouate as the Mallorca goalkeeper raced out of his box before rolling the ball into the net to score for the fourth successive game.

Nine minutes after that Barca ensured the points would be heading back to the mainland with them as Pedro, another member of their World Cup-winning contingent, made it 3-0.

The winger cut inside near the top right-hand corner of the net before unleashing a thumping effort that, possibly with the aid of a slight deflection off a Mallorca foot, dipped over Aouate.

That was Pedro's 13th league goal of the season, meaning Barca's top three goalscorers had all improved their tallies this evening.

Barca's fourth leading scorer, Iniesta, almost added to his collection in the 73rd minute as well.

However, after getting past Aouate the stand-in Barca captain could only fire his shot into the side-netting as he was pushed wide of goal.

That mattered little to Barca, though, as they already had the points sewn up.