Barcelona thrashed local rivals Espanyol 5-0 to move to within one win of a 24th Primera Division title.

Lionel Messi opened the scoring in the eighth minute with a brilliant free-kick, while Luis Suarez scored twice in the second half to move onto 37 goals for the season, putting him in prime position to collect the Pichichi award for top scorer.

Rafinha delighted the home fans by netting his first goal since returning from a serious knee injury, and then Neymar rounded off the scoring by tapping in Suarez’s low pass.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Champions League finalists Real Madrid defeated Valencia 3-2.

Atletico Madrid, who meet Real in the Champions League final later this month, were eliminated from the three-horse race for the domestic title in Spain, which will now be decided during the last round of fixtures after Zinedine Zidane’s men and Barca both won.

A brace from Ronaldo, which took his tally for the season to 33 in the division, was sandwiched between a controversial Karim Benzema strike as a much-changed Madrid side maintained the one-point gap to leaders Barca.

Barca stay top of La Liga by moving on to 88 points, one ahead of Real Madrid in second and three above Atletico Madrid, who drop out of the title race after losing 2-1 at Levante.