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Barcelona gave Deportivo La Coruna a football masterclass as they won 5-0 in their La Liga match at the Nou Camp, while Sevilla beat Numancia 1-0 despite missing a string of chances.

Barcelona 5-0 Deportivo La Coruna

Barcelona thrashed Deportivo at the Nou Camp with a clinical display that showed the La Liga runaway leaders at their mesmerising best.

Lionel Messi opened the scoring on 21 minutes before Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o added two more before half time, and then Henry and Eto'o both netted again in the final ten minutes to underline an emphatic victory.

In a move that set the tone for the match, Barcelona very nearly opened the scoring inside the first thirty seconds. Messi got on to a ball played out to him on the right flank, and fired in a cross to the waiting - and unmarked - Henry, whose shot sent Aranzubia the wrong way, but clipped the keeper's trailing feet and flew to safety.

Barcelona charged ceaselessly from then on, coming at their visitors with successive attacks that continually threatened to open up the defence. This rampant attacking was interrupted by only very rare counter-attacks from the visitors, most of which relied on speculative long balls and never really threatened.

The home side's breakthrough was just a matter of time, and it was Messi who provided it. The Argentine outpaced three defenders at full tilt before placing an incredible left-foot shot back across his own path, wrong-footing the keeper by five or six yards and clipping in off the right-hand post.

It took just six minutes for Barca to double their lead, with right-back Dani Alves - who was in blistering form throughout - providing the inch-perfect cross that Henry finished off with a trademark bullet header.

Fifteen minutes after that Eto'o turned the match into a rout as he was on-hand to mop up Seydou Keita's diving header. The Cameroon striker thumped the ball home from three yards, dismaying the visitors but making up for an earlier chance that he had squandered.

The second half was a far more sedate affair, with Barcelona relaxing in the knowledge that the game was won and Deportivo manfully trying to get back in to things.

Yet the visitors just never had the firepower to create a chance, and only when Barcelona came back to life in the final quarter of an hour did it look as if the scoreline would change.

First, substitute Iniesta hit a brilliant volley from Henry's cross that drew the best save of the match from Aranzubia on 72 minutes.

Then, on 83 minutes, Henry scored the fourth after Xavi rounded the keeper and passed for the Frenchman to fire into the unguarded net.

With four minutes left Carlos Puyol was through on Aranzubia and about to make it five, but was downed by the keeper to elicit a red card and a penalty kick. Eto'o stepped up to score an audacious spot kick that made it 5-0 and completed Deportivo's miserable visit to the Nou Camp with a scoreline that, if anything, still flattered the visitors.

Sevilla 1-0 Numancia

Sevilla wasted a string of fine chances before a late goal by Dirnei Renato gave them a 1-0 La Liga victory over 10-man Numancia.

Numancia had the best of the match until a cynical dive by Sevilla winger Jesus Navas saw Domingo Cisma get sent off on 52 minutes.

And though the home side dominated possession from then on, it took until eight minutes from time before midfielder Renato scored the only goal of the match.

A string of missed chances characterised a poor first half, with the highlights being Diego Capel and Freddie Kanoute missing empty nets for Sevilla after eight and 41 minutes respectively.

The home side were definitely second-best in the first period, with the unfancied visitors playing the best football and creating the lion's share of the chances. Delgado Dimas very nearly scored with a header on 17 minutes, while Gorka Brit had excellent chances on 20 and 26 minutes.

The second half began in the same vein, with Luis Fabiano's 46th-minute chance seeing him attempt a flying scissor kick when a simple header would have made hitting the target far easier.

Five minutes later the visitors were reduced to ten men when a despicably cynical dive by Sevilla winger Jesus Navas elicited a second yellow card from the referee for Domingo Cisma.

The enforced change of personnel and formation ended Numancia's attacking ambitions for the evening, and Sevilla began to dominate possession to an almost ridiculous extent - but still couldn't capitalise on their advantage.

For a while it seemed that Fabiano would break the deadlock as he kept finding himself with golden chances to score - but he wasted all of them. Volleys, free kicks, headers, free shots on goal and even a bicycle kick were one-by-one hit weakly at the keeper, over the bar or wide of the mark as the struggling striker wasted good build-up work throughout the last half-hour.

Finally, on 82 minutes, Renato came up from midfield - apparently having despaired of his strikers' attempts to score - and with his first half-chance slotted the ball neatly into the bottom left corner.

It might have been two had Mosquera not handled before drilling home a disallowed 88th minute volley, but in any case Sevilla registered the victory that their domination of the second half deserved - and sent a slightly unfortunate Numancia side home empty handed.

Toby Keel / Eurosport