Luis Suarez struck his first hat-trick for Barcelona in their 8-0 rout of Cordoba.

The hosts did well to survive Barca's early onslaught but eventually fell behind to a thumping drive from Ivan Rakitic in the 42nd minute, and Suarez doubled the advantage on the stroke of half-time.

Leo Messi stretched the visitors' lead further by scoring in the first minute of the second half, and then Suarez struck again, before Gerard Pique, Messi and Neymar each scored, the latter from the penalty spot, with Suarez grabbing his third in the 88th minute.

Barca stay top of the Primera Division thanks to this avalanche of goals, while Cordoba mathematically seal their immediate return to the Segunda Division.

Barca coach Luis Enrique remarked: "Relying on ourselves means winning every game. Today we did that and now we have to wait to see what our opponents do.

"Despite the high score, for the first 39 minutes it seemed that the ball wouldn't go in.

"Football is a complex sport. It's true that we're going well offensively but each match we have to recreate the situations that bring us the results we want."