MADRID: Barcelona maintained their perfect start to La Liga with a sixth straight win as own goals either side of the break and a Luis Suarez strike secured a 3-0 win at Girona in a match laced with political tension on Saturday.

Real Madrid remain seven points behind Barca thanks to Dani Ceballos’s double on his full debut to bounce back from a shock midweek defeat by Real Betis with a 2-1 win at Alaves on Saturday to move up to fourth.

Girona were hosting Barca in a Catalan derby for the first time in the top flight, but a one-sided game on the field was marked by persistent chants in favour of independence for Catalonia.

Catalonia’s pro-separatist president Carles Puigdemont was in attendance, whilst the pro-independence Estelada flag was waved by sections of both supports.

“The game had its difficulties,” said Barca boss Ernesto Valverde. “It’s a derby, there was a great atmosphere, tension. It is normal, but we played well.”

On the field there was much less controversy as Barca were rarely troubled after Aday Benitez turned Jordi Alba’s wayward shot into his own net after just 17 minutes.

Another own goal extended their advantage three minutes after half-time when goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz was fooled by Suarez’s dummy from Aleix Vidal’s cross.

And Suarez rounded off the scoring himself with just his second goal of the season by whipping the ball into Iraizoz’s near post from Sergi Roberto’s pass over the top 21 minutes from the end.

Barca increased their lead to four points after Atletico Madrid beat Sevilla 2-0 earlier to leapfrog the Andalucian club into second place. Sevilla are five points behind, followed by Real.

Real returned to winning ways following their shock 1-0 defeat to Betis in midweek as two first-half goals from Ceballos in his maiden league start for the club sandwiched a Manu Garcia header for hosts Alaves.

There were missed chances at both ends in the second half. Cristiano Ronaldo, who is yet to score in La Liga this season, and Alaves substitute Alfonso Pedraza both struck the woodwork twice, while Sergio Ramos fired over an open goal late on.

However, Zinedine Zidane’s side hung on to claim a third league win of the season and move on to 11 points.

“Today we needed the three points. We are not in brilliant form, but for sure we will play better on other days,” said Zidane.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2017