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La Liga giants Barcelona faced Dutch champions PSV on Tuesday in a Champions League game that saw the Spanish Champions achieve a thumping victory over their opponents.
The game also saw individual records being broken as Argentine ace Lionel Messi notched his eighth UEFA Champions League hat-trick thereby becoming the first player to do so.
Messi went into the game tied with Cristiano Ronaldo in Champions League hat-tricks: each having scored seven. The Argentine is now ahead of the Portuguese in the feat and has now scored 48 hat-tricks in all competitions.
Barcelona's all-time top scorer opened the bank with a phenomenal free-kick at the 32nd minute. This was followed by Ousmane Dembele's curling strike in the 75th minute to add to his side's goal tally. The goal is the French forward's fifth from six games in all competitions this season.
Messi scored his second goal only two minutes later when Ivan Rakitic's pass was netted home for Barcelona's third goal.
The Argentine then completed his hat-trick in the 87th minute when a lovely chipped pass from Luis Suarez was struck home from 15 yards by the captain.
The Argentine now has 104 goals to his name in the competition. He has also scored 14 consecutive goals in the Champions League campaign, putting him alongside Real Madrid legend Raul in a joint record.
The free-kick was one of the major talking points after the game and teammate Ivan Rakitic has now had his say on the matter, stating that his teammates already prepare their celebrations before Messi has even hit the back of the net.
According to the Daily Mail, Ivan Rakitić said, "A lot of the time when we get a free-kick, we are already thinking about the celebration," Rakitić said.
"They [PSV] were motivated with it being the first game. It's not easy because this is the Champions League."
"We can still get better. This has only just started. We are still not at 100 per cent."
Twitter has since responded to Rakitic's comments:
