The Argentinian forward scored a wonderful second goal, nutmegging a defender before chipping the goalkeeper, to take his tally to 14 in his last six games in all competitions.

Xavi opened the scoring with a free-kick in the 15th minute as Barca won at a canter to close the gap provisionally on Madrid to seven points.

Rayo Vallecano continued their rise up the standings with a one-sided 3-0 victory at home to Real Betis.

Goals by Emiliano Armenteros, Diego Costa and Raul Tamudo secured a fifth win in seven matches as Rayo climbed into eighth place in the standings.

Granada took a giant step towards survival with a 2-1 win over relegation rivals Sporting Gijon thanks to first-half goals from Carlos Martins and Guilherme Siqueira.

Martins gave the hosts a flying start when his free-kick went through a gaping hole in the Sporting wall and beat Juan Pablo at his near post. Siqueira made it two as he received an excellent through-ball from Dani Benitez and coolly slotted past Pablo.

Benitez also struck the bar and Ikechukwu Uche had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside in the second half before Adrian Colunga pulled a goal back for the visitors.

Real Zaragoza were denied three vital points in their bid to escape relegation as Osasuna snatched an equaliser amid late drama at La Romareda.

Helder Postiga thought he had earned the home side, who sit bottom of the table, a vital win when he scored the opening goal with just four minutes to go.

But Osasuna, who have European ambitions this season, earned a 1-1 draw when Roversio headed an equaliser with two minutes remaining.

An Inigo Martinez own-goal 10 minutes from time was enough to hand Getafe all three points in a tepid encounter with Real Sociedad.