Video: Barcelona 5 – 0 Levante [La Liga] Highlights 2014/2015

The Argentine’s hat-trick was sandwiched between an opener from Neymar and a strike from Luis Suarez, completing an easy rout to keep the pace at the top of the league

Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick, putting in a phenomenal performance, on his 300th Liga appearance to fireBarcelona 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. The Argentina international and Ivan Rakitic both went close with efforts from outside the area early on.

Levante initially managed to frustrate their hosts, but Neymar broke the deadlock after 17 minutes when he converted Messi’s lofted cross from the right for his 24th goal of the season.

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