Samuel Eto’o celebrated his first start for Barcelona since returning from the African Nations Cup with a second-half hat-trick which helped Barcelona thrash bottom club Levante 5-1 on Sunday.

The emphatic win, the first time they have found the net five times in any competition this season, means that Barcelona cut the lead of bitter rivals Real Madrid to two points at the top of the Spanish first division.

Spanish international playmaker Xavi Hernandez got Barca off to a good start with his third goal in four games after 14 minutes.

Two Levante defenders tried to cut out an Eto’o pass but, in the melee, the ball found it’s way to Xavi’s feet who made no mistake from just inside the penalty area.

Levante briefly silenced the Nou Camp crowd when they equalised from a Mustapha Riga penalty after 40 minutes, when Gianluca Zambrotta clumsily handled the ball, but Barca soon took charge again.

Lionel Messi put Barca ahead a little more than three minutes later when Xavi put the ball through to the mesmerising Argentine winger who, with almost no space to move, put his low shot past Levante goalkeeper Vladan Kujovic.

Eto’o then moved into overdrive after the break with goals after 55 and 61 minutes, both coming from Messi passes.

Brace

The brace ended the game as a contest but Eto’o completed his first hat-trick of the season, more than half of which has been lost to injury, by mis-hiting an unselfish pass by Bojan Krkic into the net two minutes before the whistle.

Villarreal’s chances of lifting their first ever Spanish title are still slim but they showed their fighting qualities to come from behind and beat Athletic Bilbao 2-1 to maintain their third place.