‘No team would have been capable of stopping Barca’
In the end, it is always about Lionel Messi. Barcelona’s new captain scored a hat-trick to sink PSV Eindhoven 4-0 in their opening Uefa Champions League game and Messi wrote the script as he so often does.
He has scored more hat-tricks than anyone else in the competition and 48 in his career.
PSV, the Netherlands’ best side, were not even that bad on Tuesday and deserved their applause from their 2,000 travelling fans at the end.
Their problem was Messi was so spellbindingly magnificent, even if his side took some time to get going – fortunate for the thousands of Barca fans who were not in the stadium at kickoff time which was two hours earlier than Catalans are used to for night games.
Uefa has staggered the kickoffs in its leading competition for the first time this season with the aim of reaching a wider television audience. It may work. But the earlier start time clearly does not suit all the various cultures across Europe, though the giant old stadium did fill out as the game went on and the Catalans announced an attendance of 73,462.
PSV were not unattractive opposition. Long gone are the days when Dutchman Louis van Gaal, as Barca manager, would plunder their ranks for the finest Dutch players, but they are a successful club who keep being crowned domestic champions despite operating on a budget €20 million (Dh85.7m) smaller than Ajax.
Phillip Cocu, formerly of Barca and PSV as a player, left the Dutch side after three years as manager in the close season to try his luck at Turkish giants Fenerbahce.
He was replaced by Mark van Bommel, also formerly a player with Barca and PSV.
PSV have won all their five domestic league games so far, scoring 21 and conceding three. They won their championship but they had not played a team of Barca’s quality.
They were undone by magic half an hour into each half. The first was a magnificent left-footed free-kick from Messi which spun and curled over the opposition wall and beyond Jeroen Zoet at full stretch.
The second came from Ousmane Dembele, who spun to lose two defenders and slotted home from outside the box.
“A lot of the time when we get a free-kick we are already thinking about the celebration,” his teammate Ivan Raktic said.
“The foul before the free-kick was very important in deciding the game,” Van Bommel said. “I don’t think it was a foul. But we should have stopped Dembele before he got that far.”
“Leo is the best in the world. But the 4-0 was too much today. We are still developing.
“But no team would be capable of stopping Barcelona today. Leo put that in the corner but before that, things were going well.
“You can lose here; there is no shame in that. We have the youngest players and we are still on the right road. They are far ahead of us at the moment.”
Once Dembele’s effort found the net with 16 minutes to play, PSV were done.
Within two minutes, it was 3-0 thanks to a Messi halfvolley from a high Rakitic pass. Van Bommel had seen enough, bringing on a substitute to try and stop three becoming four, five or six.
PSV were better than that, but there was more damage coming even though Barca were down to 10 men after Samuel Umtiti was sent off for a second booking.
Messi, who has scored six in seven games this season, was not finished, making it four and completing his treble as he guided a superlative Luis Suarez pass in from 12 yards out.
“He’s so decisive,” Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde said. “He’s always been that way. It is fortunate for us. It becomes routine.”