Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar were all on target as Barcelona shrugged off the loss of the injured Sergio Busquets to remain just two points behind La Liga leader Real Madrid with a 4-0 win on Sunday.
Sevilla separate the giants of Spanish football in second, just a point behind Madrid, after twice coming from behind to edge a seven-goal thriller 4-3 at rock-bottom Osasuna.
However, Real Madrid has a game in hand over its title rival. Barca’s visit to the Basque Country was only eight minutes in when Busquets had to be carried off with ankle ligament damage after a dangerous challenge from Gonzalo Escalante that went unpunished.
Unsettled
The visitors were briefly unsettled as a fine save from Marc-Andre ter Stegen prevented Adrian Gonzalez giving Eibar a shock lead at the tiny 6,200 capacity Ipurua.
Yet, there was little doubt over the outcome once Denis Suarez, who had replaced Busquets, drilled home his first Barca goal into the far corner from outside the box on the half hour mark.
Neymar missed a one-on-one and Luis Suarez hit the post as Barca missed a series of chances to kill the game before half-time.
However, Messi doubled the lead just six minutes into the second-half when he swept home Luis Suarez’s cross for his 28th goal in 26 games this season.
And Luis Suarez matched his strike partner as La Liga’s top scorer this season with 15 when he robbed Florian Lejeune before slotting home at the near post 22 minutes from time.
“We leave here with one piece of bad news which is Busquets’s injury although it’s not as serious as we thought,” Barca coach Luis Enrique told reporters after a fourth straight win in all competitions.
Barca is third on 41 points, two behind Real, which beat Malaga 2-1 on Saturday and has a game in hand.
Dzeko strikes
In Serie A, Edin Dzeko’s second-half strike kept title challenger Roma in the hunt with a 1-0 win at home to Cagliari that cut the gap on leader Juventus to one point.
Fresh life was breathed into the race for the scudetto last week, especially for Roma and Napoli, when Juventus suffered a 2-1 defeat at Fiorentina.
But the Turin giant, aiming for a record sixth consecutive title, fired a warning to its chasers with a classy, first-half performance in a 2-0 home win over Lazio that saw Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuain strike shortly after the quarter hour.
The results:
La Liga: Real Betis 0 drew with Sporting Gijon 0; Real Sociedad 1 (Juanmi 72) bt Celta Vigo 0; Eibar 0 lost to Barcelona 4 (Denis Suarez 31, Messi 51, Luis Suarez 68, Neymar 90+2).
Serie A: Atalanta 1 (Gomez 55-pen) bt Sampdoria 0; Roma 1 (Dzeko 55) bt Cagliari 0.
Bundesliga: Mainz 0 drew with Cologne 0 .
