18 in front of Real Madrid.
Ballon d’Or winner Messi scored for a ninth successive league game and then supplied Cesc Fabregas and Thiago Alcantara for the second and third goals. He now has 28 for La Liga season. Barcelona have 55 points from 19 games with 18 wins and a draw, breaking the previous mark for the halfway stage of the campaign which they set at 52 points in the 2010-2011 season.
“We’re very happy to get 55 out of 57 points, but logically it will be difficult to repeat that with the Champions League and the Spanish Cup to think about as well,” said Barca coach Tito Vilanova.
“We have Atletico 11 points behind us and we have to go there and to Real Madrid so we can’t just stop now, we have to keep going.” — AFP.



