Barcelona did not have to break too much of a sweat to glide past an ambitious Levante in Camp Nou, Messi, Luis Suárez and Paulinho providing the goals.
Barcelona ensured they remain the only unbeaten side across Europe's top five divisions with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Levante in Camp Nou that temporarily stretched their lead over arch-rivals Real Madrid to 17 points and ensured that Atlético and Valencia's victories on Saturday did not eat into their healthy advantage at the top of the table.
Leo Messi scored his 15th league goal of the season to set Barça on their way to three points, latching on to a ball in the area and striking it, albeit not very cleanly by the Argentinean's standards, beyond the reach of Levante keeper Oier. The visitors did not travel to Camp Nou merely to make up the numbers and were occasionally dangerous on the break but lacked a cutting edge in front of goal in the absence of their two top scorers this season, José Luis Morales and Enis Bardhi.
Suárez on target again
Luis Suárez continued his recent purple patch with a splendid strike towards the end of the first half, pulling down a Sergi Roberto cross and firing into the net via a slight deflection to send Barça into the break two goals to the good.
Levante came out firing in the second half and could have got on the score sheet when Shaq Moore find himself one-on-one with Marc-André Ter Stegen, but the Barça keeper made an excellent stop with his foot. Frogs winger Ivi was a constant thorn in Barça's right hand side and also drew a sprawling stop from Ter Stegen but the visitors were to be denied a goal for the third consecutive Liga game.
Paulinho completed the job for the hosts in stoppage time after Messi had danced through the Levante defence and squared for the Brazilian to tap in from close range.