Spain: Six-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi brought his A-game on the table as Barcelona registered a comprehensive 5-1 win over Alaves.
Messi fired in two sensational long-range efforts and would have had a hat-trick at Camp Nou had a dubious VAR decision in the first half not ruled Antoine Griezmann offside.
He did tee up a second of the night for the 21-year-old Francisco Trincao and was instrumental in Junior Firpo adding a fifth too, a flamboyant scoop freeing Griezmann to send a pass to Firpo at the back post.
Portuguese forward Francisco Trincao opened the scoring in the game with a close-range goal in the 29th minute. Barcelona took control over the game after Trincao’s strike as Messi scored a stunning goal in the injury time of first half to extend their lead.
In the second half, Alaves tried to bounce back in the game with a goal in the 57th minute by Luis Rioja. However, Barcelona didn’t let them took the hold of the game as Trincao strike his second goal of the match with an excellent re-bound in the 74th minute.
Messi didn’t waste much time to stamp his authority over Alaves with a stunner from 25-yard which left the goalkeeper helpless in the 75th minute.
Left-back Junior Firpo added more pain to Alaves wounds with a goal in the 80th minute to seal the deal for Barcelona.
