FC Barcelona made Spanish football history as they beat Atletico Madrid in the Camp Nou on Saturday night.

The 3-0 win was Barcelona's 16th consecutive league triumph, beating the previous record which they had shared with the famous Real Madrid side of the 1960-61 season.

Although it was not Barcelona's best performance of the campaign, it was enough to take them 10 points clear of Real Madrid, who play at home to Real Sociedad on Sunday night.

Atletico traveled to Barcelona on the back of three straight defeats and found themselves behind after just 17 minutes.

Leo Messi was the scorer with a trademark goal, the Barca striker received the ball in the Atletico half and produced a mazy run to the edge of the area before beating David de Gea with a left foot shot.

Shortly afterwards he missed another chance after being set up by Dani Alves, but doubled Barca's lead after 28 minutes. This time David Villa set him up with a defense splitting pass and Messi made no mistake to net his 23rd league goal of the campaign.

Only when they were 2-0 down did Atletico begin to show life, but although Kun Aguero was looking good, Quique Sanchez Flores' decision to leave Diego Forlan on the subs' bench meant he was too often isolated in the Atletico attack.

Forlan did appear at the start of the second half and his side immediately improved, with Felipe Luis unlucky to see a powerful shot headed off the line by Gerard Pique following great work by Aguero.

Forlan also got into a good position on a break, but Thiago Cardoso was unable to pick him out with a simple pass, as Barca began to lose control of the game.

It was not until the 72nd minute that they created a clear chance, although it needed a quality save from De Gea to stop Messi's goalbound header.

Messi' s hat-trick finally arrived six minutes later, reacting quickly when Villa's shot dropped to him a yard out from goal. The Argentinean doesn't miss that kind of chance and slid the ball home to end the night on the perfect note. It was Messi's fourth hat-trick of the season.