Lionel Messi scored on his 500th Barcelona appearance as the European champions moved back to the top of the table with a 4-0 win over Real Betis as La Liga returned from a curtailed winter break on Wednesday. Atletico Madrid remain level on points with Barca thanks to two goals in the final two minutes from Angel Correa and Antoine Griezmann to emerge 2-0 victors at Rayo Vallecano.
And Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice and missed a penalty as Real Madrid eased the pressure on under-fire coach Rafael Benitez with a 3-1 win over Real Sociedad to stay two points behind the leaders. Barca celebrated their fifth trophy of 2015 before kick-off after adding the Club World Cup to their haul last time out with Messi captaining the side in the absence of Andres Iniesta. “It has been a spectacular year and we wanted to finish it this way,” said Messi.
“It will be difficult to improve on what we have done, but we always try. We have a great squad that are desperate to continue winning.”
Yet, on a day dominated by controversial refereeing decisions, they were handed a gift to open the scoring after a decent start by Betis. Antonio Adan clearly played the ball before catching Messi as he punched the ball to safety, but referee Inaki Vicando Garrido surprised everyone by pointing to the spot.
Neymar hit the bar with the resulting penalty, but Heiko Westermann could only turn the rebound into his own net under pressure from Ivan Rakitic. From Betis’ misfortune the floodgates opened as a lovely one-two between Neymar and Messi allowed the later to tap home his 425th goal for the club.
Luis Suarez added a third with a cool finish from Sergio Busquets’s pass inside the first minute of the second-half. And the Uruguayan rounded off the scoring seven minutes from time as Barca set a new record tally for the calendar year of 180 goals.

Neville’s Valencia still winless as Villarreal go fourth
Meanwhile, Gary Neville remains without a win in La Liga as Valencia boss as Villarreal moved up to fourth thanks to captain Bruno Soriano’s spectacular free-kick in a 1-0 win yesterday.
Bruno found the top corner from the edge of the box midway through the second-half to allow Villarreal to edge two points ahead of Celta Vigo in the battle for the final Champions League place. However, Valencia’s ambitions of a top-four finish now look forlorn as they lie 11 points behind their local rivals in 10th.  Valencia had only managed to draw Neville’s opening two league games in charge against Eibar and Getafe before the 10-day winter break. And the former Manchester United defender took a more defensive approach in a bid to at least preserve his unbeaten record with a five-man defence as Villarreal dominated the first 45 minutes.
Roberto Soldado had the best chance to open the scoring against his old side, but the former Tottenham Hotspur striker failed to connect with Jonathan dos Santos’s inviting cross.
Valencia had started the second half much more positively as Alphonse Areola was forced into saves from Andre Gomes and Dani Parejo, whilst Paco Alcacer blasted over a great chance from close range. However, the visitors were caught with a sucker punch when Soldado was brought down on the edge of the box and Bruno curled the ball perfectly into the top corner for his fourth goal of the season. Alcacer wasted another big opportunity when he volleyed over shortly afterwards, but Valencia created little in their search for an equaliser and now face the daunting task of hosting Real Madrid on Sunday.