After Cristiano Ronaldo grabbed a hat-trick in Real Madrid's first Champions League game of the season last night, it was almost inevitable that Leo Messi would do likewise tonight.
Barcelona had a more comfortable night than they would have expected against Ajax at the Nou Camp and the Argentinian kept up his phenomenal goalscoring record in the competition. That is now 62 Champions League goals, just nine shy of Raul's record and the 27th match ball of his career.
His first was a superb free-kick after 22 minutes to put the Catalans one goal to the good.
MES by bw38
Then came the second, a typical Messi jink in the box before coolly composing himself to drill home Barcelona's advantage 10 minutes after the break.
MES2 by bw38
And he completed the hat-trick with this neat finish with just 15 minutes remaining, with a difficult night for the Dutch side complete when they missed a penalty to put a gloss on the scoreline just two minutes later.
MES3 by bw38
He's just a bit special.
