LA LIGA ROUND-UP:LIONEL MESSI ensured Barcelona maintained their eight-point lead over Real Madrid ahead of next weekend's Clasico, scoring twice as the leaders came back to beat basement side Almeria 3-1 in La Liga on Saturday.

The World Player of the Year equalised with a penalty and settled the match in the last minute with his 29th league goal of the campaign, after Thiago Alcantara had put Barcelona 2-1 up in a nervous display at the Nou Camp.

Real had put them under pressure by easing through a match that had been expected to be far tougher, when Kaka scored two penalties and set up Cristiano Ronaldo for a third at sixth-placed Bilbao.

“Madrid are going to fight for this league until the end, until it is mathematically impossible because this is the way we have been educated,” Real captain Iker Casillas said.

Leaders Barcelona moved on to 84 points with seven games left to play. Sevilla climbed to fifth with 46, one ahead of Bilbao, after Ivan Rakitic scored a 68th-minute equaliser for a 2-2 draw at Real Mallorca.

Both sides rested players ahead of their Champions League quarter-final second legs next week, when Barcelona visit Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday with a 5-1 advantage and Real travel to play Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday with a 4-0 lead.

On top of that, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola will have been preparing for the first of four possible meetings between the Spanish giants in 18 days starting with next Saturday’s league encounter.

Four days later, they have the King’s Cup final in Valencia and they look likely to meet again in the two-legged Champions League semi-finals.