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Lionel Messi was the inspiration once again as Barcelona beat Zaragoza 2-0 in La Liga.Messi was returning to the ground where he struck a brilliant hat-trick last season and was quickly involved again in this match.
The winger tried his luck after 14 minutes, but his shot was comfortably contained by Zaragoza goalkeeper Toni Doblas.
Braulio had a great chance at the other end when he was set up by Angel Lafita, but fluffed his effort with only Victor Valdes - returning from illness - to beat.
David Villa then saw a low drive well saved by Doblas and Dani Alves dinked a lob just over the crossbar with only the keeper to beat seven minutes before the interval.
Pedro also missed a great chance to put the Catalans ahead late in the half, but Messi was not to be denied three minutes before the break, when he latched on to Villa´s clever pass and slid the ball underneath an exposed Doblas, who got a touch but was unable to keep out the Argentinian´s effort.
It was a great time to score the opener and shortly into the second half, Barca received a further boost as Zaragoza defender Leo Ponzio was sent off for striking out at Alves and the home side faced the unenviable prospect of playing almost the entire second period with 10 men.
Jose Aurelio Gay´s men coped admirably for a while, but Villa came close just after the hour and Messi scored the seemingly inevitable second minutes later.
Seydou Keita´s original shot was saved by Doblas and fell to Andres Iniesta, whose effort was half-cleared to Messi, and the Argentinian bagged his second with a simple finish.
There was still a quarter of the match to be played and Zaragoza must have feared the worst, but Pep Guardiola´s side threatened surprisingly little in the closing stages.
Villa came close to breaking his recent scoring drought three minutes from time, but saw his angled drive rebound off the post.
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