It took just three minutes for Barcelona to take the lead with Neymar sliding in Messi, who took a touch to compose himself and another touch to cannonball it past Dorus de Vries blowing away the cobwebs from the Alaves game instantaneously.
They rarely let up creating chances after that with Kolo Toure smashing the ball against his own crossbar minutes later as he tried to clear it to out of safety, before Messi arrowed a shot inches wide of the
At the other end Marc-Andre ter Stegen made an error bringing down Moussa Dembele in the box but made it up his by saving the penalty shot by Dembele.
Messi and Neymar connected wonderfully for the second goal. No, really. They exchanged several one-twos as they moved towards the area before Neymar slid the ball across De Vries with Messi making no mistake by slotting it the net. Sublime, breathtaking, unique. Teams are often accused of trying to walk the ball into the net, The MSN can actually do it.
It could have been three before the break with Ivan Rakitic’s shot was cleared off the line by Kieran Tierney, before a great attack imitated by Sergi Roberto ended with Neymar firing a shot against the legs of De Vries when he should have either scored or provided one to a team-mate.
However, He got on the scoresheet just a few minutes after the second half started he whipped home a spectacular free-kick to kill the visitors’ any chance of making a comeback, before helping Iniesta truly bury them.
Iniesta struck home a stunning volley from Neymar’s inch-perfect cross to make it four for the Blaugrana, before Suarez cut it back to Messi to slide home the fifth, completing his hat-trick – the first player to reach six trebles in this competition. It was also the 40th of his career. There will be many more.
Likewise for Luis Suarez, who controlled Neymar’s chipped through-ball on his chest, swivelling and lashing it past the helpless De Vries. It was Neymar’s fourth assist of the game.
Messi took a shot against the post before Suarez grabbed the seventh and his second after the Argentine cut it back to him. If only they could have distributed the goals more evenly between Alaves and tonight.
