Ivan Rakitic: When I get home, I'll talk about Leo Messi

Ivan Rakitic was one of Barcelona's best players against Leganes, filling in for Sergio Busquets in midfield.

The Croatian spoke to beIN Sports and Barca TV, during which he hailed team-mate Lionel Messi, who scored a hat-trick to win the game. Rakitic joked: "If everyone is talking about Leo it's because he's earned it. I will talk about him too when I get home."

The midfielder added: "It's normal that we dipped a bit (in form) because we are going at a very strong pace, in this sense it was important to get stuck into the game well. We have to look at the positive, three more points and good play for long periods.

"We have to take strength where we can (amid a hectic schedule). We want to be in all the competitions, there's no time to even complain."

The Croatian celebrated matching Real Sociedad's record of 38 games unbeaten. "We are very proud of equalling this record," said Barcelona. "This is part of Barca, it's what Barca means and it's a record that has to be here. If we have achieved it, great, but we can't pay too much attention to that, there's a very tough game against Roma around the corner."