Lionel Messi scores hat-trick, beats Cristiano Ronaldo to UCL record

Sep 15, 2016, 07:13
Lionel Messi scores hat-trick, beats Cristiano Ronaldo to UCL record

Barcelona defeated Celtic 7-0 in their Champions League opener on Tuesday night, and the BT Sport panel have sung the praises of the club's attacking trident.

Messi added a further two goals to his tally, and Luis Suarez (2), Andres Iniesta and Neymar also got on the scoresheet to seal a comfortable victory.

Barcelona were shocked into life by the spot kick and scored their second in the 27th minute when Neymar and Messi combined inside the Celtic box before the latter tapped home after De Vries had been drawn out of his goal.

"For me, he's the best player of all time, both for the number of goals he scores and for his footballing vision". There are lots of things to learn for our players.

"They could not have come to a more hard place in world football, after a highly intense game at the weekend where they put so much into it and dealt with so much pressure and played so well".

The Spanish champions were fined 150,000 euros ($170,000) by UEFA because of the flags during last season's competition.

However, Celtic had a great chance to level against the run of play when Dembele surged onto Scott Sinclair's pass and was upended by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Labelling Messi as the embodiment of total football, Enrique said his versatility across the pitch makes him the best in the history of the sport.

Typically dominant in possession, Barcelona swung the ball out wide to Neymar - who picked up four assists on the night - stretching Celtic's narrow midfield.

Messi's hat-trick was his 40th professional treble in club and global football, while his sixth European Cup treble saw him move ahead of Real Madrid greats Alfredo di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas.

"We will always take positives from it". The ball moves as if it is on an ice rink and they move as fast as that, they are high-level, top players with big belief and that is why they are what they are.

Suarez scored 31 goals as Rodgers' almost ended Liverpool's two-decade drought without a Premier League title in 2014, but admitted it was tough to be on the receiving end of his brilliance.

Long gone was the firepower Brendan Rodgers' team displayed in Celtic's 5-1 rout of fierce rival Rangers on Saturday in the Scottish Premiership.

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