MADRID, April 8 -- Leo Messi scored a hat-trick and FC Barcelona made history with their 3-1 win at home to Leganes in the 31st round of games in Spain's Liga Santander.

Messi scored two first half goals, the first of which was a stunning free kick, to put Barca 2-0 up at halftime against a battling Leganes, but they took their foot off the gas in the second half and Nabil El Zhar got Leganes back into the game with a deflected shot in the 68th minute.

Barca had rested players such as Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta and looked shaky for a while before Messi rounded off his night with a close range finish following a pass from Ousmane Dembele.

As well as taking his goal tally to 29 for the season, Messi's hat-trick allowed Barca to make history and coach Ernesto Valverde to celebrate his 50th game in charge in style as Barca equaled Real Sociedad's record of 38 games unbeaten in LaLiga which dates back to 1980.

Barca lead the table by 11 points after Real and Atletico Madrid drew the big game of the weekend 1-1 in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Both Keylor Navas and Jan Oblak were outstanding in an entertaining game which saw Cristiano Ronaldo open the scoring following a Gareth Bale cross in the 52nd minute only for Antoine Griezmann to equalize four minutes later.

The draw keeps Atletico four points ahead of their neighbors and they will be the happier of the two after having had 48 hours to prepare the game.

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