FC Barcelona’s Luis Suarez smiles during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between FC Barcelona and Eibar at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
BARCELONA, Spain — Luis Suarez scored two goals and Lionel Messi added another to lead Barcelona to a 3-0 win over Eibar and stay five points ahead of Atletico Madrid as the Spanish league reached its midway point on Sunday.
Messi scored his 400th league goal, and leads the competition this season with 17 through 19 rounds. Suarez is next with 14 goals.
Suarez opened the scoring at Camp Nou in the 19th minute. The Uruguay striker exchanged two quick passes with Philippe Coutinho to break down Eibar’s backline before he skillfully directed a shot into the far corner of the net while falling down.
“I always do things the difficult way,” Suarez said. “But as a striker you have to have all different kinds of tricks.”
Messi doubled the advantage after Sergi Enrich had Eibar’s only scoring chance with a header that went wide.
Coutinho also played a role in Messi’s goal in the 53rd, passing the ball to Suarez, who then found Messi, who cut around a defender and fired in a low, left-footed strike.
Goalkeeper Asier Riesgo did well to turn back attempts by Suarez and Messi. But he was left all alone against Suarez when Sergi Roberto caught the defense out of position with a quick throw-in directly to Suarez, who shot past Riesgo from a tight angle in the 59th.
Eibar is 16th after a sixth consecutive round without a win.