Barcelona kept up their pursuit of the Primera Liga title after thrashing Atletico Madrid 6-0 at Vicente Calderon on Saturday. The Catalan giants went to the lockers room three-up, thanks to strikes from Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto'o and Gianluca Zambrotta. Ronaldinho added the third 13 minutes after re-start before Argentinean prodigy Messi notched home again and Andres Iniesta completed the rout just before the end. Atletico played with 10 men on the field for the last 15 minutes after defender Fabiano Eller received his marching orders. Barca are joint leaders with Real Madrid on 69 points but the latter have the head-to-head record advantage. Messi put the hosts ahead in the 39th minute when he raced through from the middle of the pitch, exchanged passes with Eto'o and went clear on goal before poking home.
Messi notched a brace Italian full-back Zambrotta doubled the lead two minutes before the interval following a brilliant left-footed lob over advancing keeper Ivan Cuellar. Eto'o added the third in the first-half's additional time when a cross from Deco evaded Cuellar and went to the Cameroonian striker, who slotted into the empty net with an acrobatic effort. Ronaldinho widened the hosts' misery in the 58th minute after he was released by a superb give-and-go with Eto'o before drilling into the bottom of the net. Messi netted the fifth ten minutes from time with another lob over the helpless Cuellar. Barcelona concluded the goal fiesta in stoppage time when Icelandic Eidur Gudjohnsen passed to Eto'o, who went on one-on-one but opted to square to Iniesta for an easy tap-in.
