Messi and Barca pounce on Real stumble
A LIONEL Messi hat-trick saw Barcelona move four points clear of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga as Ousmane Dembele marked his debut with an assist in a 5-0 rout of local rivals Espanyol on Saturday.
Earl ier, Rea l pa id for t he absence of the suspended Cristiano Ronaldo a nd a ser ies of missed cha nces by Garet h Ba le as t hey were held to a shock 1-1 home draw by newly promoted Levante.
Barca made no such mistake as, for all their early season off-field problems, Ernesto Valverde’s men have taken maximum points from their opening three La Liga games.
Messi led the way with a virtuoso performance, but his opener also needed a huge slice of luck as he was wrongly not flagged offside from Ivan Rakitic’s through ball before wriggling free inside the box and blasting into the top corner.
Barca’s second arrived thanks to a counterattack from an Espanyol corner led by Messi and Luis Suarez before Jordi Alba’s low cross was slotted home at the near post by the Argentine.
Espa nyol haven’t won a Cata la n derby since 2009, but t hey did have t hei r cha nces to get back i nto t he game as Pablo Piatti struck t he post and then fired inches wide either side of half-time.
Messi put the outcome beyond any doubt by rounding off his hat-trick with another sharp finish from Alba’s cut-back.
Dembele has the unenviable task of replacing the departed Neymar and Barca’s € 105 million man had to wait until 22 minutes from time for his debut as he replaced Gerard Deulofeu to a standing ovation.
However, he showed why Barcelona have made the 20-year-old the third most expensive player in history as his pinpoint cross was swept home by Suarez to round off the scoring after Gerard Pique had headed home Barca’s fourth.