Real steals march on absent Barça

Barcelona on Sunday was crowned the winner of the Club World Cup after a 4-0 demolition of Santos, the 2011 Copa Libertadores winner with much-coveted Brazil international Neymar in its ranks. However, it was Argentina's wunderkind, Leo Messi, who stole the show in Yokohama with a brace either side of first-half efforts from Xavi and Cesc Fàbregas.

By dint of finding the net in Japan, Messi equalled the 2009 feat of his Barça teammate Pedro of scoring in the six available tournaments in a calendar year: La Liga, Champions League, King's Cup, the Spanish and European Supercups and the Club World Cup.

"My players were like artists," said Barça coach Pep Guardiola after the match. "Whatever they envisaged in their minds they were able to do on the pitch. It was an incredible performance."

Shortly before Barça won its second world title, and the 13th of 16 possible trophies since Guardiola took the helm in 2008, Real Madrid also put in a noteworthy display to dispatch Sevilla 6-2 and assume solitary leadership of La Liga, three points ahead of the Catalan side. Cristiano Ronaldo hit yet another hat-trick in a match marked as much by Iker Casillas' brilliance as the Portuguese forward's prolific performance. Twice the Spain captain intervened to prevent Sevilla hauling back the score line but there was little even Casillas could do when Jesús Navas presented a timely reminder of his skills with a low shot through traffic that crept in at the far post.

Unfortunately for Sevilla, Real already had four on the score sheet at that point and added two more, despite being down to 10 men after Pepe was sent off, before Álvaro Negredo netted against his former club in injury time to embellish the final score.

Elsewhere, Gregorio Manzano took a further step toward the Atlético revolving door after Real Betis defeated the rojiblancos 2-0 at the Vicente Calderón. An irregular first half of the campaign has left Atlético wallowing in mid-table and currently just four points clear of the drop zone. A potentially season-defining King's Cup return leg against Albacete on Wednesday may well be Manzano's final game in charge. The third-division team won the first encounter 2-1 and will be keen to claim the scalp of The Indians if possible.