Barcelona moved four points clear of Real Madrid at the top of LaLiga as a historic Lamine Yamal hat-trick secured a 4-1 win over Villarreal.

The Blaugrana would have been all too wary of the threat posed by Villarreal, having lost at home to the Yellow Submarine in each of the last two seasons.

But Yamal ensured that a third successive loss never looked on the cards at Camp Nou, with his 28th-minute opener followed by a trademark stunner as he cut in off the right and found the top-left corner.

Pape Gueye pulled one back for Villarreal early in the second half, but Yamal’s third put the game to bed as he became the youngest player to score a LaLiga hat-trick at the age of 18 years and 230 days.

Barca added gloss to the scoreline late on, Robert Lewandowski tapping in from Jules Kounde’s square pass as Hansi Flick celebrated his 100th game in charge in style.

Yamal puts Barcelona in command

Barcelona had struggled to break down their visitors, but in the 28th minute they found the breakthrough as Fermin Lopez slid an excellent pass through to Yamal, who made no mistake with an assured side-foot finish into the bottom-left corner.

Ten minutes later, Yamal doubled the lead in more spectacular fashion, jinking past two defenders as he cut in from the right before unleashing a stunning curling effort into the top-left corner to give Villarreal a mountain to climb.

Ayoze Perez stretched to try to meet Nicolas Pepe’s cross the far post as Villarreal sought a route back into the game, but he could only prod narrowly wide.

Luiz Junior needed to be at full stretch to prevent Raphinha from making it 3-0 with a bending free-kick, before Jules Kounde had an effort ruled out for offside.

Villarreal hope put to bed by Yamal history

Villarreal, though, did find a way back into the game four minutes into the second half, Gueye slamming home from point-blank range after Barcelona failed to deal with a corner.

And the visitors saw a golden opportunity to level matters go begging when Joan Garcia came surging out of his goal only to fail to win the ball, presenting Perez with the chance to fire into an empty net from long range. Perez’s aim was off, however, and his shot drifted wide of the post.

Luiz Junior had to be alert to prevent Ferran Torres from restoring Barcelona’s two-goal advantage, but he could do nothing to stop Yamal achieving that aim with his third, the teenager latching onto a sublime throughball from Pedri and finishing with consummate ease.

Lewandowski was given a simpler task of completing a comfortable win in the second minute of stoppage time, with Barca piling the pressure back on Madrid, who host Getafe on Monday.