Barcelona restored their twelve point lead over Real Madrid with a 1-2 victory over Racing Santander.
Zigic opened the scoring for Racing with a penalty after Pereira was tripped up in the area but this was cancelled out nine minutes later by a goal from Messi shortly after he came on as a substitute.
It wasn’t until ten minutes before time that Barcelona made sure of the three points, Messi once again the scorer. Just before the end, Márquez and Piqué both received their marching orders after picking up second bookings and Barca finished the match with nine men on the field.
Third placed Sevilla, resting a few players in preparation for their upcoming dup semi-final, lost 1-0 to Sporting Gijón, Diego Castro scoring the only goal of the match.
Valencia consolidated fourth place with a 3-2 win over Almería, Joaquín opening the scoring after six minutes. Negredo equalised for Almería but then David Villa grabbed a brace, the first from the penalty spot.
It was Negredo who once again pulled one back for Almería but Valencia managed to hold on for the win.
In Division Two, Xerez have a three point lead at the top after a 2-0 victory against Alicante, goals from Momo and Sarmiento, and Tenerife moved back to second place after a 1-0 win against Gimnástic, Angel scoring the only goal.
Nerja suffered a 0-3 defeat at the hands of leaders Mancha Real and slip to fifth in the table. Second placed El Palo kept up their challenge with a 6-0 win against Álcala C.F.
The heaviest defeat, however, was suffered by Barrios NS Remedios, who were hammered 8-0 by Baeza C.F.