Barcelona comfortably beat Granada 4-0 in La Liga on Saturday afternoon, with a Messi hat-trick and a late Neymar goal doing the damage.
The result sees Barcelona return to the summit of the table, at least until Atletico Madrid travel to fifth-place Celta Vigo on Sunday lunchtime.
Here we take a look at how Barcelona’s stars performed on an individual basis:
GK: Claudio Bravo – 7
Had absolutely nothing to do, didn’t have to make a save until the second half.
LB: Jordi Alba – 6.5
Missed an early chance to put Barca ahead, and was fairly quite thereafter.
CB: Thomas Vermaelen – 6.5
Like Bravo (and the rest of the defence) he had absolutely nothing to do for large parts of the game.
CB: Gerard Pique – 6.5
Solid when called upon, which was extremely rare.
RB: Alex Vidal – 7
The new signing looks good – solid at the back and good going forward.
CM: Arda Turan – 8
Some people wondered where Turan would fit in, but on the evidence of this performance he will be a shrewd acquisition for the Catalans.
CM: Ivan Rakitic – 7
Broke up the attacks and did what was asked of him.
CM: Sergi Roberto – 6
Quiet game – didn’t do anything wrong, but didn’t do anything special either.
ST: Neymar – 9.5
Played an important role in the second and third goals, and scored the fourth.
ST: Luis Suarez – 9.5
Assisted the second goal and fourth goals, and unlocked the defence for the first. Another great performance from the former Liverpool man.
ST: Lionel Messi – 10
Messi was a hat-trick hero, taking his tally to five goals in two games and twelve in his last ten.
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SUBSTITUTES:
RB: Dani Alves – 6.5
Played the final 25 minutes but didn’t really influence the game.
CM: Adriano Correia – 6
Replaced the impressive Turan for the final 15 minutes.