Goals from Pedro and Messi gave Barça victory over a Malaga team who were level with just 10 minutes left to play. A magisterial display from Xavi laid the foundations for the win, which also saw the reappearance of Dani Alves.Juan Ramón López Muñiz brought his Racing team to the Nou Camp last season and earned a 1-1 draw and tonight he nearly guided Malaga to a similar result. On 80 minutes the scores stood at 1-1 before Xavi set up Alves to put in Messi to score the winning goal. The win keeps Barça top on 61 points, two ahead of Real Madrid who beat Tenerife 1-5 earlier in the evening, and they now have more points than they did at the same point in last year’s campaign.

With Messi playing in a new position tucked in behind Ibrahimovic, Barça found it hard to find their rhythm at the start and the visitors were first to threaten when Valdes did well to stop a Duda free kick. That was to be about the sum of Malaga’s danger though, whilst Barça were finding it tough going despite their clever football in a crowded last third of the pitch and their only real chance in the first 20 minutes came when Messi shot after he’d stolen the ball off a Malaga defender.

Xavi lifted the team with a wonderful piece of skill in midfield and suddenly they were playing at their fluid best. Manu Torres was lucky to escape a second yellow on 41 minutes as Pedro looked to get past him and Messi and Ibra both came close, though it was Xavi again who provide the panache with a back heeled lob which would have made a brilliant goal had it gone in.

The break seemed to put Barça off their stride and they again made a slow start, though Munúa and Welington both cleared off the line from Ibrahimovic. Just as Malaga began to see their chance and opened up their lines a bit, Pedro popped up with a great drive from the edge of the box to make it 1-0-

The fans nearly had a chance to celebrate a second soon after when Iniesta hit the woodwork, but Malaga didn’t throw the towel in and continued to threaten on the break – one of which brought them an equalizer as Valdo and Obinna combined with just 10 minutes left to play. Then Xavi again showed his class with a lovely pass through to Alves which split the Malaga defense and the Brazilian centered for Messi to hit home and give Barça the points.

Match Info:

FC Barcelona: Víctor Valdés; Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Maxwell; Sergio Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta; Messi, Ibrahimovic & Pedro (Bojan 85’).

Málaga CF: Munúa; Manolo Gaspar, Stepanov (Edu Ramos, 17’), Weligton, Manu Torres (Valdo, 46’); Juanito, Toribio; Fernando, Baha (Forestieri, 71’), Duda & Obinna.

Goals: 1-0, Pedro (m. 68), 1-1, Valdo (m. 80),  2-1, Messi (m. 83).

Referee: Rubinos Pérez (madrileño).

Bookings: Manu Torres, (m. 36) and Piqué (m. 41)