Another hat-trick for Messi

LIONEL MESSI scored his fifth hat-trick of the season as Barcelona posted a comfortable win at Malaga.

Barca took control just after the half-hour mark as Messi gave Willy Caballero no chance with a powerful header from Adriano’s cross.

And the visitors made sure of the three points with two quickfire goals early in the second half as Alexis Sanchez fired home from close range before Messi got his second of the day with a wonderful run and finish.

The Argentinian completed his treble on 81 minutes as he again left the Malaga defence in his wake before slipping the ball past Caballero from a narrow angle. Salomon Rondon got a consolation for the hosts five minutes later .

Real Madrid bounced back from their midweek Copa del Rey defeat by Barcelona with a 4-1 comeback victory over 10-Athletic Bilbao that kept them five points clear.

Athletic had threatened to add to Madrid’s misery following their 2-1 home loss to Barca in the first leg of their cup quarter-final tie when Fernando Llorente gave them an early lead.

However, Jose Mourinho’s men drew level soon after through Marcelo before two second-half penalties from Cristiano Ronaldo and a late goal from Jose Callejon helped Madrid stay clear of Barca

In Italy, Inter beat Lazio 2-1 in last night’s late game.

Tommaso Rocchi gave Lazio a 30th minute lead but Diego Milito equalised a minute before half-time and Giampaolo Pazzini grabbed the winner on 63 minutes.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice as AC Milan recovered from last week’s derby defeat against Inter by beating Novara 3-0 at the Stadio Silvio Piola on Saturday.

Ibrahimovic broke the deadlock in the 57th minute and Robinho doubled the lead in the 73rd minute, before Ibrahimovic grabbed his second in the last minute.

On Saturday Juventus beat Atlanta 2-0 with goals from Stephan Lichtsteiner and Emanuele Giaccherini.

Francesco Totti netted twice in the opening eight minutes to set Roma on their way to a 5-1 home win over relegation-threatened Cesena.

Totti’s brace took his tally to 211 goals for Roma, overtaking former AC Milan striker Gunnar Nordahl’s record for the most goals for a single club in the Italian league.

Jakub Blaszczykowski and Robert Lewandowski each scored twice as Borussia Dortmund beat Hamburg 5-1 to pull level on points at the top of the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich and Schalke.

On Friday leaders Bayern Munich were defeated 3-1 at Borussia Monchengladbach, and a day later Schalke beat 3-1 home win over Stuttgart at the Arena AufSchalke.