Messi hat-trick adorns Barca’s romp

VALENCIA: Lionel Messi netted his first hat-trick of the La Liga season and provided two assists in yet another sensational individual display as a rampant Barcelona won 5-0 at Levante to strengthen their lead at the top of the table on Sunday.

Messi, at his mesmeric best, notched the 31st La Liga hat-trick of his career for Barca while also setting up goals for Luis Suarez and Gerard Pique.

“Suarez and Messi are the best striking partnership in the world. Luis has goals in his veins — and everything has already been said about Leo,” said defender Pique, paying tribute to Barca’s prolific South American double act.

Argentine Messi, who yesterday collected for a record fifth time the Golden Shoe trophy that is awarded annually to the leading marksman in the top divisions of Europe’s football leagues, looks on a mission to repeat his 2017-18 success.

His treble took him to 14 league goals for the season, two more than any other striker in Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues.

His masterclass began as he carved his way through the home side’s defence before producing an outrageous no-look pass for Suarez to open the scoring in the 35th minute, shortly after midtable Levante had hit the underside of the crossbar.

Messi struck his first goal of the night two minutes before the interval, latching on to a defencesplitting pass from Sergio Busquets and racing clear to knock the ball through the legs of Levante’s goalkeeper with his weaker right foot.

The Barca captain, following up his two mesmeric goals from free kicks against Espanyol last week, seemed intent on making further mockery of his recent fifth-place ranking in the Ballon d’Or voting by striking again soon after the interval.

He dispatched Jordi Alba’s low cross into the bottom corner with a first-time finish, before going on to complete his treble on the hour mark from close range.

Not yet sated, he then laid on the 88th minute pass for Pique to complete the rout which took leaders Barca on to 34 points after 16 games, three points clear of both second-placed Sevilla and Atletico Madrid, in third.

 MILAN: Roma battled back for a 3-2 Serie A victory over Genoa to give beleaguered coach Eusebio Di Francesco a lifeline at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday despite goalkeeper Robin Olsen’s early blunder.

It ended Roma’s five-match winless streak dating back to a 41 triumph over Sampdoria on Nov 11, and lifted Di Francesco’s side to sixth — two points behind AC Milan in the final Champions League berth.

Earlier, Polish striker Arkadiusz Milik’s superb injury-time free-kick grabbed a 1-0 win for Napoli over Cagliari to pull Carlo Ancelotti’s side back to within eight points of leaders Juventus.

Milik scored the winner in the 91st minute in Sardinia with a perfectly curled effort which left Cagliari goalkeeper Alessio Cragno with no chance.

Fiorentina ended their eightmatch league winless run with a 3-1 comeback victory over Empoli, and are now four points off fourth-placed AC Milan.

Fabio Quagliarella, meanwhile, continued his fine form, scoring in his sixth straight Serie A game to seal a 2-0 win for Sampdoria over Parma.

 BERLIN: Timo Werner and Yussuf Poulsen both scored twice as RB Leipzig brushed aside Mainz 4-1 on Sunday to strengthen their hold on a top-four place in the Bundesliga.

Fifth-placed Eintracht Frankfurt edged out Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 later on Sunday to stay only two points behind Leipzig.