Barcelona 5-0 Levante: Magical Messi shines in 300th game with a hat-trick

Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick, putting in a phenomenal performance, on his 300th Liga appearance to fire Barcelona to a 5-0 win over Levante on Sunday.


The Argentine talisman supplied the first goal for Neymar before going on to claim a 23rd top-flight treble, as Luis Enrique's side made it 11 consecutive wins in all competitions.


A cool side-footed finish past Diego Marino doubled Barca's lead before Messi then applied a close-range finish from Pedro's assist to make it 3-0.

When Ivan Lopez brought down Neymar in the box after 65 minutes, Messi sealed his hat-trick and then substitute Luis Suarez rounded off the scoring with a well-executed scissor kick.

It marked a wholeheartedly positive afternoon's work for Luis Enrique and, in particular, his star forward.

Despite making eight changes from Wednesday's Copa del Rey win over Villarreal, Barca and Messi began on the front foot.