Barcelona 3-1 Leganes: Messi hat-trick brings La Liga title closer
Messi magic once again helped Barça to three points at Camp Nou on Saturday
Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick as Barcelona beat Leganes 3-1 on Saturday to match Real Sociedad’s record for the longest ever unbeaten run in La Liga.
FC BARCELONA
3 ________________ 1
LEGANÉS
LINE UP
FC BARCELONA
Ter Stegen, Semedo, Piqué, Vermaelen, Sergi Roberto (Jordi Alba, 74'), Rakitic, André Gomes, Coutinho (Iniesta, 80'), Dembélé (Denis Suárez, 89'), Messi y Suárez.
LEGANÉS
Cuéllar, Zaldua, Bustinza, Siovas, Raúl, Omar Ramos, Gabriel, Rubén Pérez (Guerrero, 77'), El Zhar, Eraso (Brasanac, 60') y Amrabat (Beauvue, 46').
GOLES
1.0, Leo Messi (26'). 2-0, Leo Messi (32'). 2-1, El Zhar (68'). 3-1, Leo Messi (43')
ÁRBITRO
De Burgos Bengoetxea (vasco). T.A.: Coutinho (78')/Siovas (50'), Zaldua (54'), Rubén Pérez 75')
INCIDENCIAS
Partido correspondiente a la jornada 31 de LaLiga disputado en el Camp Nou ante 72.126 espectadores.
Barca are now unbeaten in 38 games in the league and can break La Real’s record, which has stood since 1980, when they host Valencia next weekend.
They are also now four wins away from winning a league title which will have Messi’s fingerprints all over it.
His hat-trick here, which was answered by a deflected Nabil El Zhar effort, was the 45th of his career and featured his seventh free-kick goal of the season — he’s now scored from outside the area in his last six appearances.
Barca took control from the start and had chances to take the lead before Messi opened the scoring with a free kick.
Ivan Cuellar tipped a rasping Philippe Coutinho effort round the post and then produced and even better save from Luis Suarez.
Messi stayed onside to collect an Ousmane Dembele pass and square for the Uruguayan, whose shot from five yards was somehow saved by the sprawling Cuellar.
Leganes couldn’t resist for much longer, though, and they fell behind when Messi won and scored a free kick from 30 yards.
The Argentine has now scored six free kicks in the league this season, matching the league high from the last 20 years, set by Ronaldinho in 2006-07.
It was 2-0 moments later when Coutinho fed Messi, who took a brilliant first touch before calmly slotting home his second goal of the evening.
Substitute Claudio Beauvue headed over early in the second half as Barca switched off in a sign of things to come.
Eventually Leganes’ pressure paid off when El Zhar fired home from edge of the box with 20 mins remaining via a Sergi Roberto deflection.
However, Barca eventually sealed the three points when Ousmane Dembele teed up Messi to score his 29th league goal of the season.
