BARCELONA: Barcelona\'s Argentinian forward Lionel Messi (2ndL) is congratulated by his teammates after scoring during the Spanish league football match FC Barcelona vs Cordoba CF at the Camp Nou stadium here Sunday. — AFP Photo MADRID, Dec 21 (AFP): Luis Suarez scored his first La Liga goal and Lionel Messi netted twice as Barcelona moved to within a point of leaders Real Madrid with a 5-0 thrashing of Cordoba in their final game of the year Saturday.
The hosts got off to a flying start as Pedro Rodriguez, once again deputising for Neymar, opened the scoring with a smart finish from Ivan Rakitic's wonderful through ball inside two minutes.
Barca then struggled to build on their lead for the rest of the first period, but Suarez capped another quick start to the second period when he poked home from close range to end a seven-game drought in the league since returning from a four-month ban for biting.
Gerard Pique headed in a third before Messi rounded off the scoring with two stunning finishes in the final 10 minutes.
"I was able to score and that helps relax me. I don't know if we were affected, but the draw with Getafe last week annoyed us. We had to come here today and show that we're in the fight for the Liga title," Suarez said.
"Scoring is always important, but with the support of everyone we all knew that this happy moment would come.
"I'm a forward and I have to score goals, but I'm also helping the side to achieve its aims. For this I hadn't got too obsessed with getting on the scoresheet. The most important thing was that the team won and we achieved that".
Despite coach Luis Enrique claiming that Neymar had fully recovered from an ankle injury, the Brazilian watched on from the bench as Pedro was rewarded for his hat-trick in the 8-1 thrashing of Huesca in midweek and the Canary Islander continued his scoring streak in the first meaningful attack of the game.
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