Lionel Messi Scores on 400th La Liga Appearance as Barcelona Beat Levante

Barcelona's unbeaten league run continued on Sunday, as they beat Levante 3-0 at the Camp Nou to restore their nine-point lead at the head of La Liga.

Ernesto Valverde's team delivered a 15th win of the league season thanks to goals from Luis Suarez, Paulinho and Lionel Messi, who netted the opener on his 400th appearance in La Liga.

Champions Real Madrid remain fourth in the standings, but they travel to Celta Vigo later on Sunday with two games in hand, hoping to reduce the 17-point gap between them and Barcelona.

Gerard Pique returned to the Barcelona bench as Javier Mascherano and Thomas Vermaelen started in central defence for the hosts, while winger Ousmane Dembele made his first start for the club since September.

A lengthy list of attacking absences for Levante meant Ghanaian striker Emmanuel Boateng made his first start of the league season as the solitary striker.

Forward Alex Alegria was out injured, while midfielders Enis Bardhi and Jose Campana sat out the clash through suspension.

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The almost inevitable climb for Levante at the Camp Nou became that much tougher when Messi interlinked with Jordi Alba at the edge of the area before dinking in the breakthrough goal after only 12 minutes.

Messi looped Alba into the left side of the box and took his left-back's headed return first time, bouncing a tame effort off the inside of the far post and equalling Gerd Muller's record of 365 goals in one of Europe's top five leagues in the process.

Barca announced on Saturday that they had signed Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho, but they didn't look to be in need of the Brazilian on Sunday.

Levante's stacked midfield couldn't keep up with the pace of their Blaugrana equivalents, and it was on the 38-minute mark when Suarez doubled their advantage, with a full-back once again playing a key role in the buildup.

Sergi Roberto rampaged down the right and fed Suarez inside the box. The defender's first-time cross into his striker was sweet, and Suarez's first touch and strike on the second was sumptuous.

Opta's Jamie Kemp hailed the best two-player partnerships in La Liga this season, two of which belonged to Barcelona and were both on display in the first two goals.

With their work seemingly done and three points all but in the bag, Barcelona weren't nearly as motivated to take risks moving forward with the ball after the restart.

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Pleased with his winger's work on his return to league action, Valverde took Dembele off just after the hour mark. Andre Gomes made a rare appearance in place of Andres Iniesta.

The 22-year-old Jose Arnaiz, days after scoring in Barca's 1-1 Copa del Rey draw against Celta Vigo, came on for his Liga debut on the right flank.

There was enough time for Paulinho to continue his run as La Liga's shock success story of the season, with the Brazil international scoring his seventh league goal of the campaign with a tap-in following some brilliant ingenuity from Messi.

Real will have their chance to close the distance to Barca, but convincing displays like this one will only encourage the notion that Spain's top flight is close to being wrapped up already.