European football: Messi at the double again as Barca ease to win over Racing

The Argentine World Player of the Year took his tally to 13 goals in his last five games for Barca, including a record five in Wednesday’s Champions League match against Bayer Leverkusen.

Real had to come from a goal down to beat Real Betis 3-2 in Seville on Saturday when Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice and they set a club record of ten successive wins on the road in coach Jose Mourinho’s 100th game in charge.

With 12 matches left, Real have 70 points, ten ahead of Spanish, European and world champions Barca on 60. Third-placed Valencia dropped further behind on 44 after letting slip a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at home to Real Mallorca earlier yesterday.

“We had to put in a lot of effort. We did things well on a pitch that did not help the circulation of the ball,” Barca coach Pep Guardiola said, in a reference to the poor state of the playing surface. “They put nine men behind the ball and that is never easy.”

Messi put Barca ahead in the 29th minute at the Sardinero when he slid in to turn a Cesc Fabregas cross into the net from close range. He doubled the lead with a 56th-minute penalty following a foul on Fabregas, his 30th goal of the campaign in the league, leaving him two behind top scorer Ronaldo, and his 50th in all competitions this season.

In Germany, meanwhile, Schalke cruised past Hamburg 3-1 in Gelsenkirchen yesterday to move within a point of third-placed Borussia Monchengladbach in the Bundesliga.

Teemu Pukki gave Schalke the lead after five minutes and Christoph Metzelder made it 2-0 21 minutes later.

Dutch international Klaas Jan Huntelaar converted a penalty shortly after the half-hour mark before Gojko Kacar pulled a goal back just before the break.

While Schalke have a Champions League place in their sights, Hamburg remain in the relegation dogfight, just four points above the bottom three.

Werder Bremen collected their first home victory of 2012 with an important 3-0 win over fellow Europa League hopefuls Hannover. Claudio Pizarro opened the scoring in the 31st minute before Sebastian Prodl made it 2-0 four minutes after the break. Markus Rosenberg sealed the win with the third in the 56th minute.

The win ended a two-game losing streak for Bremen and kept them four points ahead of their opponents in the race for European qualification.

In Italy, Juventus hit the woodwork three times and had a goal controversially disallowed as they were held 0-0 at Genoa yesterday, their sixth draw in their last seven Serie A games.

Mirko Vucinic hit the crossbar and post with headers early in the second half, then Simone Pepe fired against the foot of the post before having a goal ruled out for offside.

Leaders AC Milan took full advantage with a 2-0 win at home to Lecce which took them four points clear of second-placed Juve, who remained unbeaten after 27 games. Antonio Nocerino and Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored in each half for the defending champions and Champions League quarter-finalists, who now have 57 points.