Messi, Suarez on mark as Barcelona cruise past Girona

Madrid, Feb 25: FC Barcelona returned from conceding an early goal to cruise to victory at home over Girona and piled the pressure on second placed Atletico Madrid who play away to Sevilla.

Barca's 6-1 win on Saturday put them 10 points ahead of Atletico and retained their 14-point advantage on Real Madrid, who won 4-0 at home to Alaves earlier in the day, reports Xinhua news agency. 

Portu opened the scoring for Girona in the 3rd minute only for Luis Suarez to equalise almost directly from the kick off.

A Barca side containing Phillipe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele in their starting 11, then proceeded to take Girona apart with Leo Messi scoring twice and Suarez adding another before the break.

Countinho scored his first league goal since joining from Liverpool, before Suarez completed his hat-trick on a night when the only bad news was a muscle injury suffered by right back Nelson Semedo.