Barca deepen Ideye & Success relegation troubles

Super Eagles stars Brown Ideye and Isaac Success were second-half substitutes as Malaga fell 2-0 at home to a Barcelona side without Lionel Messi on Saturday in a La Liga week 28 fixture at the Estadio La Rosaleda on Saturday.

Former Liverpool pair Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho combined to give Barcelona a comfortable lead against a 10-man Malaga side who lost Samu Garcia to a straight red.

Barcelona go 11 points clear at the top of the table after the win while Malaga look set to go down at the end of the current campaign after managing to just 13 points from 28 games.

SETTING THE SCENE

Lionel Messi was left out of Barcelona's La Liga clash with Malaga due to the birth of his third son.

The Argentine posted a picture of his newly-born Ciro on Instagram, and in his place in Barca's XI at Malaga was Ousmane Dembele, who flanked Luis Suarez up top with Philippe Coutinho.

Elsewhere for the Catalans, Paulinho came in for the injured Andres Iniesta, who is joined on the sidelines by Nelson Semedo and Denis Suarez.

Malaga, meanwhile, were seven points adrift at the foot of the table and could not count on injured quartet Recio, Adalberto Penaranda, Adrian Gonzalez and Juan Carlos.

However, they did beat Barca 2-0 on home soil last season to not only keep themselves up but effectively kill off the Blaugrana's title hopes.

More to follow...