European round-up: Suárez, Messi score late to save Barcelona against Alavés
Lionel Messi scored a spectacular free-kick to give Barcelona a come-from-behind 2-1 win over struggling Alavés, keeping the Catalans 11 points clear at the top of La Liga and preserving their unbeaten record in the league.
Alavés were the only team to win at the Camp Nou in the league last season and looked set to overshadow Philippe Coutinho’s first start for Barça when the Sweden striker John Guidetti gave them a shock lead in the 23rd minute, falling over as he lashed the ball past Marc-André ter Stegen.
Luis Suárez finally levelled for the Catalans in the 72nd minute, scoring for the eighth league game in a row following wave after wave of attacks from Barça and a handful of impressive saves from the visiting goalkeeper, Fernando Pacheco.
The equaliser maintained Barcelona’s status as the only unbeaten team in Europe’s top five leagues and Messi then gave them a seventh consecutive Liga win by curling a sumptuous free-kick beyond the reach of the former Real Madrid keeper in the 84th minute.
Barcelona top the standings with 57 points, 11 ahead of their nearest challengers, Atlético Madrid, and 19 ahead of the champions, Real Madrid. Atlético overcame the absence of their injured striker Diego Costa to beat Las Palmas 3-0 while Sevilla were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Getafe after a controversial equaliser in injury time.
In Serie A a double from Dries Mertens took Napoli straight back to the top with a 3-1 win over Bologna while Internazionale conceded a last-minute goal at SPAL to extend their winless run to nine games with a 1-1 draw.
Third-placed Lazio lost 2-1 at Milan amid controversy as Patrick Cutrone appeared to use his arm to score the hosts’ opener at San Siro and the goal stood despite the presence of the video replay system (VAR).
The VAR denied Crotone a last-minute winner at home to 10-man Cagliari, the game ending 1-1, and a bizarre miss by the Genoa forward Luca Rigoni cost his team a point at home to Udinese as they lost 1-0.
Napoli, briefly dislodged by Juventus who played on Saturday and won 2-0 at Chievo, lead with 57 points from 22 games, one ahead of the Turin side.
Juventus opened up a 10-point gap over third-placed Lazio while Inter are a further two points behind in fourth.
In France Gustavo Poyet got off to a flying start as Bordeaux coach when his team upset visiting Lyon 3-1 in Ligue 1. Bordeaux, who under their previous coach, Jocelyn Gourvennec, had lost their last three home games, prevailed through a Nicolas de Préville goal and penalties by Malcom and Gaëtan Laborde, all in the first half.
Leon Bailey’s remarkable Bundesliga form continued when he scored again to help Bayer Leverkusen reclaim second place with a 2-0 win over Mainz.
Bailey broke the deadlock early in the second half with the Jamaican forward’s eighth league goal of the season. The 20-year-old Bailey has also set up six more. Leverkusen are 16 points behind the runaway leaders, Bayern Munich.