La Liga leaders Barcelona will travel to take on Malaga on Saturday evening hoping to take another step towards regaining the title.

Ernesto Valverde's side are 10 points clear of their next closest challengers with only 11 games of the season remaining, having gone through the entire campaign unbeaten so far.

Once again, the form of Lionel Messi has been central to that, with the Argentine maestro having scored 31 goals across all competitions this term, in addition to 13 assists.

Here, Sports Mole looks at the five-time Ballon d'Or winner's previous record against Saturday's opponents.

It will come as no surprise that Messi boasts a formidable record against Malaga, directly contributing to 19 goals in as many appearances against them in the league and cup.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that he has twice been on the losing side against Malaga, with one of those coming in the corresponding fixture just last season as Barca slumped to a 2-0 defeat.

Indeed, despite the impressive overall statistics, Messi has actually only scored once in his last seven appearances against Malaga, netting the winning goal at La Rosaleda in January 2016.

The 30-year-old has certainly not been as prolific as one might expect against Malaga in recent years, then, but prior to the 2013-14 campaign they were one of his favourite opponents.

Indeed, in 2011-12 Messi scored hat-tricks home and away in this league fixture, while he also scored in all three of the meetings the following campaign to take his tally up to nine goals in those five matches.

In his first 10 starts against Malaga, Messi scored 12 goals and assisted four more, but the Boquerones appear to have finally found a way of dealing with the Barcelona talisman in recent meetings.