Messi-Alena recreate Ronaldinho-Messi moment as Barca go top

Champions Barcelona overcame a dogged Villarreal side to win 2-0 at home on Sunday, with goals from stalwart defender Gerard Pique and youngster Carles Alena, to provisionally return to the top of La Liga.

Pique headed the Catalans in front in the 36th minute, connecting with a cross from the lively Ousmane Dembele who produced another decisive display after scoring Barca's late equaliser against Atletico Madrid last week.

Villarreal are hovering above the relegation zone but they produced an admirable display and nearly took the lead when Gerard Moreno seized on a mix-up between goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and defender Clement Lenglet but was able only to strike the outside of the near post.

Homegrown midfielder Alena, 20, came off the bench to score his first league goal for Barca in the 87th minute and seal the win, racing on to a through ball from Lionel Messi and producing a confident finish. The moment brought back to memory the time when Ronaldinho, the team's stalwart figure in 2005 found Messi with a delicate chip -- in typical Ronaldinho fashion, as an 18-year-old Messi, an youth graduate from Barcelona's famed La Masia chipped it over the keeper's head for his first Barca goal. Messi's inventive through ball past a couple of defenders and Alena's chip past the keeper was reminscent of that moment from 2005 even as the young Masia graduate did not get piggybacked by Messi later on.