Lionel Messi broke yet another record and put himself even further in the history books earlier tonight, as Barcelona romped to a 5-1 thrashing over Sevilla at home.

He started the rout with a well-taken costless-kick strike in the 21st minute, with goalkeeper Beto sprawling to his right to try and stop the Argentine's swerving effort, which curled over the wall and into the roof of the net in an emphatic nature to break the deadlock.

Messi then conjured up a peach of a pass towards the run of team-mate Jordi Alba, who had a sliding shot towards goal denied by a dramatic goal-line clearance as it stayed 1-0. Neymar was denied by a good stop from Beto, who used his quick feet to rush out of his area and parry the Brazilian's effort, before Alba unfortunately put the ball into the back of his own net after an inviting cross bounced off his foot and trickled past Bravo into the net. Sevilla were level, but not for long...

Neymar made amends for his earlier missed opportunity to head home and put Barca back in-front, from Xavi's superb costless-kick delivery into the area. Sevilla man-marking was simply not tight enough, as the 22-year-old forward slipped past his marker to score.

Creative midfielder Ivan Rakitic scored a headed finish beyond Beto in the 65th minute to make it 3-1, before a hushed celebration in respect for his former team, who he left in the summer transfer window to join the Catalan giants for £15million pounds.

And then the Messi Magic really began to shine through. He picked up the ball near the centre circle, darted towards the edge of the area before squaring the ball towards Neymar, who was in a better position to shoot than he was. However, it was a decoy, as Neymar passed it straight back into Lionel's path, to slide home and make it 4-1 after 72 minutes.

Having broken Telmo Zarra's all-time goal-scoring record, many would have thought it was all over. Not there - he weaved past three defenders as if they were not there, before playing a neat 1-2 with Neymar and smashed the ball low and hard into the bottom corner of the net to make it 5-1.

Sevilla were simply overwhelmed by the sheer brilliance from Messsi & Co, as Barcelona keep up the pace with Real Madrid at the top of the table in Liga BBVA this weekend. Lionel grabs a hat-trick, stealing the show as the Champions League returns in midweek and he'll be hoping to break Raul's all-time Champions League record in th process.

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About the author
Mosope Ominiyi
Writer and editor - European football analyst, youth enthusiast. Email: [email protected]