The Saturday night La Liga football fixtures were all affected by the wildcat strike by air traffic controllers, teams having to travel by road and rail. The Barcelona match was delayed by forty-five minutes.
Barcelona travelled to Osasuna and made sure they stayed top of the pile by coming away 0-3 winners.
Pedro opened the scoring and then two second half goals from Messi, one from the penalty spot, sealed matters for the Catalan side.
Real Madrid, hoping to bounce back from the recent trouncing by Barcelona, played host to Valencia.
In the 64th minute, with the match all square, Valencia’s Albelda was ordered back to the dressing room after receiving a second yellow card and the match turned in Real’s favour, Cristiano Ronaldo grabbing a brace to give them a 2-0 victory and keep them in second place, two points behind their arch rivals.
In the other match played on Saturday, Levante were 2-0 winners against Atlético Madrid in a game which saw nine yellow cards handed out.
Nano opened the scoring after only two minutes and Caicedo added a second in the second half.