Lionel Messi nets the 31st La Liga hat-trick of his career
Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick against Levante in a 5-0 win, and with Luis Suarez also on the score sheet, those two have now netted more goals between them this season than the entire Real Madrid team.
Messi is the league’s top scorer with 14 goals. Suarez has 11 and those 25 goals means they have one more than Madrid’s total haul of 25.
Messi did not play last season when Barcelona were beaten 5-4 by Levante. He was back for this one and he made sure it was a no-contest from his first intervention on 35 minutes. His record against Levante is now 19 goals in 17 matches.
He even had time to trot off in the second half and change his shorts. He is not slowing down and Barcelona stay three points clear at the top thanks largely to their Argentinian.
Barcelona had Nelson Semedo out with a last minute knee injury and the solution was a mixture of Gerard Pique at right-back and Ousmane Dembele at right wing-back.
Levante had Emmanuel Boateng starting up front and the forward who scored a hat-trick against Barça last season went close with the home side’s first chance saved by Marc Andre ter Stegen.
Messi, who came into the game having scored 16 in 16 against Levante, then had Barcelona’s first chance shooting just wide. But Levante were already exposing the absence of an orthodox right-back and Dembele was booked for a foul on Toño. Boateng then slid in but just failed to make contact with a Jason pass.
Levante had their best chance of the first half when Jose Campaña played a pass through the heart of the Barcelona defence. Clement Lenglet appeared to handle it outside the area but it continued its trajectory to Boateng who thundered it on to the crossbar.
From almost being one-up Levante were soon one-down. Messi and Suarez had been quiet but from their first combination they scored. Ivan Rakitic pressed Enis Bardhi and under pressure he gave the ball straight to Messi. The number 10 carried it left dragging half the Levante defence with him. When he sent it back across the face of the goal Suarez clipped his shot past Oier Olazabal.
Goal number 13 for Messi came just two minutes into the second period. Jordi Alba went tearing down the left and was found by Suarez. He crossed for Messi who buried his shot from the edge of the area.