Espanyol 0-3 Barcelona: Luis Suarez scores twice to send visitors top

Barcelona leapfrogged Real Madrid to the top of La Liga with a 3-0 win over Espanyol in the Catalan Derby, with Luis Suarez scoring twice.

Barca struggled for fluency in a goalless first half, but after the break Suarez seized on two defensive errors by the home side either side of an Ivan Rakitic second.

Suarez opened the scoring in the 50th minute following a catastrophic backpass by Jose Manuel Jurado, who had earlier missed a glorious opportunity to fire Espanyol ahead in the fifth minute.

Rakitic's left-footed effort in the 76th extended Barca's lead, while Suarez sealed the win by rounding 'keeper Diego Lopez 10 minutes later after picking up Aarón Martin Caricol's hacked clearance.

The win sees Barcelona go level on 81 points with Real Madrid - who earlier on Saturday beat Valencia 2-1 - albeit having played a game more, while their superior head-to-head record has them topping the table.

It was Espanyol who made the brighter start to the game though and they should have been ahead early on, breaking through Barcelona's defence with ease only for Jurado to badly drag his right-footed effort wide of the far post.

Meanwhile, bar a couple of mazy Neymar dribbles, it took all of 39 minutes for the visitors to carve their first real opening, the Brazilian delivering a delightful ball from the left to Sergi Roberto at the far post who found the side netting with his header.

It did bring about Barca's best spell of the opening 45, though, with Neymar also firing off a snapshot of a strike with his left foot that went just wide of the near post prior to half-time.

After the break, a rejuvenated Barca side swiftly took the lead although their opening goal was practically handed to them thanks to Jurado's wayward backpass.

Neymar nearly made it two on 60 minutes with an attempted dink finish over Lopez from the left edge of the penalty area only for the 'keeper to make a fine fingertip save.

Espanyol were still confidently venturing forward themselves, with substitute Leo Baptistao having his shot-cross from the right well blocked, and Jurado working another opening - his left-footed volley well saved by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

But as a result of Espanyol's forays into the opposition half, they were more vulnerable against the counter, and sure enough Lionel Messi broke away with the ball, feeding Rakitic on the left of the area who completely fooled Lopez with his coolly slotted left-footed finish into the far corner.

Barcelona dominated proceedings thereafter, and so it was no surprise to see Suarez add a second to his individual tally late on to ice the win that sends the team top.