Espanyol 0 Barcelona 3: A brace from Luis Suarez and an Ivan Rakitic strike in the second half keep the pressure on Real Madrid as they moved to the top of La Liga

BARCELONA leapfrogged Real Madrid at the top of La Liga as they scored three second half goals to beat rivals Espanyol 3-0 at the RCDE Stadium.

A brace from Luis Suarez and a strike from Ivan Rakitic sealed the win as they move clear of Zinedine Zidane's team.

Espanyol nearly raced into an early lead when Barcelona's defence were wide open leaving Jurado to race through, but he dragged his attempt badly wide in the fifth minute.

The Derbi barceloni was certainly not a one-way affair in the opening stages, with Quique Sanchez Flores' men taking the game to Luis Enrique's side.

Barca had their first real chance in the 39th minute, Sergi Roberto hitting the side netting after he met a brilliant cross from Neymar.

The Brazilian forward was then involved again just before the break when Luis Suarez played him in down the left wing, but his left-footed snap-shot went wide of the near post.

He may have had a quiet first half but Espanyol couldn't keep Suarez out for long as the former Liverpool star opened the scoring in the 50th minute.

The Uruguayan international found the back of the net with a glorious outside of the right foot shot after he latched onto a terrible back pass from Jurado.

It was nearly 2-0 when Neymar almost found the top right corner, but his curling effort was tipped over brilliantly by former Real Madrid goalkeeper Diego Lopez.

Barcelona did double their lead in the 76th minute when Croatian midfielder Ivan Rakitic rolled the ball into the far corner with his left foot as Lopez went to ground far too easily.

It was 3-0 in the 86th minute when Suarez bagged himself a brace after another defensive mishap in the Espanyol defence.

Martin Caricol failed to clear the ball as he hacked a clearance, leaving the 30-year-old to skip past Lopez and tuck home into an empty net.