La Liga Table 2016: Thursday's Week 27 Results, Updated Standings and Title Odds

Barcelona cruised to a 5-1 win over Rayo Vallecano during Thursday's La Liga action, improving their title odds on their way to an eight-point lead over Atletico Madrid in the standings.

Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick and Ivan Rakitic and Arda Turan also got their names on the scoresheet, while Luis Suarez missed a penalty. Rayo ended the match with just nine players, as both Diego Llorente and Manuel Iturra were sent off. Manucho scored the only goal for the hosts.

Elsewhere, Real Betis beat Espanyol 3-0, and Granada booked a 2-0 win over Sporting Gijon. Here's a look at Thursday's results:

Home	Score	Away
Granada	2-0	Sporting Gijon
Espanyol	0-3	Real Betis
Rayo Vallecano	1-5	Barcelona

The current La Liga standings:

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Barcelona	27	22	3	2	74	22	+52	69
2	Atletico Madrid	27	19	4	4	39	11	+28	61
3	Real Madrid	27	17	6	4	74	26	+48	57
4	Villarreal	27	15	8	4	33	18	+15	53
5	Sevilla	27	12	8	7	38	28	+10	44
6	Celta Vigo	27	12	6	9	39	44	-5	42
7	Athletic Club	27	12	5	10	42	36	+6	41
8	Eibar	27	10	6	11	40	36	+4	36
9	Real Sociedad	27	9	7	11	36	38	-2	34
10	Valencia	27	8	10	9	32	30	+2	34
11	Malaga	27	8	8	11	24	25	-1	32
12	Deportivo La Coruna	27	6	14	7	34	36	-2	32
13	Real Betis	27	7	10	10	24	36	-12	31
14	Espanyol	27	8	4	15	26	53	-27	28
15	Las Palmas	27	7	6	14	29	40	-11	27
16	Granada	27	7	5	15	29	51	-22	26
17	Rayo Vallecano	27	6	8	13	37	58	-21	26
18	Getafe	27	7	5	15	26	44	-18	26
19	Sporting Gijon	27	6	6	15	30	48	-18	24
20	Levante	27	5	5	17	25	51	-26	20

The latest title odds, courtesy of Oddschecker.com:

Team	Odds
Barcelona	1-25
Atletico Madrid	9-1
Real Madrid	20-1

Recap

Barcelona were expected to cruise to an easy win over Rayo Vallecano and extend their lead at the top of the standings, and that's exactly what happened on Thursday. Rakitic opened the score after 22 minutes, taking advantage of a mistake from goalkeeper Juan Carlos.

The stopper failed to control a routine cross, spilling the ball right in the path of the Croatian. Unibet were afraid of what would follow:

Messi doubled the Catalans' lead almost immediately, after Neymar played the ball back to his team-mate despite finding himself in a promising position to score.

In typical fashion, Rayo tried to take the fight to the Blaugrana, and they even mustered a handful of opportunities in the first half. But a comeback never seemed likely, and their bid was made even more difficult when Llorente was handed a straight red card just before half-time.

The Rayo player clashed with Rakitic, catching the scorer on his shin with his studs. Replays showed Rakitic's leg caused him to show his studs to begin with, however, and Llorente was hardly at fault. Bleacher Report's Karl Matchett thought it was a bad decision to send him off:

Down to 10 men, Rayo stood no chance against Barcelona, who created plenty of opportunities to score early in the second half. Neymar and Suarez failed to put the ball in the net, but Messi did not, tapping home his second goal of the match.

Manucho managed to pull one back just before the hour mark, as Gerard Pique and Javier Mascherano failed to track his run, but any hopes of a comeback were dashed even further when Iturra joined Llorente for an early shower, clattering into Sergio Busquets inside the penalty box.

Suarez promptly missed the resulting spot-kick, as the Blaugrana continue to struggle from the penalty spot, per Matchett:

Messi completed his hat-trick just minutes later, taking advantage of the wide-open spaces in the Rayo defence. Turan completed the scoring with a diving header, his first for the club.

Via Barcelona's official Twitter account, Rakitic said he and his team-mates came in with the perfect plan to dismantle Rayo:

Real Betis cruised to a 3-0 win over Espanyol, thanks to goals from Ruben Castro, German Pezzella and Juan Vargas. The real star of the show was once again Charly Musonda, however, as he continues to take full advantage of his loan deal from Chelsea.

Per Kristof Terreur of Het Laatste Nieuws, Belgian national team coach Marc Wilmots saw the youngster provide a wonderful assist for the second goal, and while the Red Devils boast plenty of talent in the wide areas, the fact there's even a chance he might make Belgium's UEFA Euro 2016 team speaks volumes to the impact he's having:

Youssef El Arabi and Isaac Success handed Granada a much-needed win over Sporting Gijon, grabbing three important points in the battle against relegation. The visitors finished the match with just 10 players, as Sergio Alvarez was booked twice in quick succession in the second half.

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