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Lionel Messi matched Cristiano Ronaldo’s hat-trick earlier in the day as Barcelona turned on the style to dismiss in-form Atletico Madrid 5-0 at the Nou Camp. With the Rojiblancos having scored eight goals in their last two outings and Barcelona labouring against Valencia in midweek, some thought a shock may have been on the cards on Saturday night. But Pep Guardiola’s men laid on a performance reminiscent of the one that saw them hit Osasuna for eight last Saturday, with Messi joined on the scoresheet by David Villa, while Joao Miranda also put through his own goal.

Messi’s treble saw him go stride-for-stride with Ronaldo who scored three for Real Madrid against Rayo Vallecano, and was his 12th hat-trick for the club. His side also managed to keep man-of-the-moment Radamel Falcao quiet, with the Colombia striker having scored six goals in his previous three games. Barca were keen to stamp their mark on the game from the off and they did, although they had to watch Tiago hit their bar before they could. With nine minutes gone, Xavi’s crossfield pass was brought down on the chest by Villa who then slipped in past Miranda and finished across the body of Thibaut Courtois.

It was a horror night for the on-loan Chelsea stopper, who then rushed out to meet a Messi shot, only to see his save fly into the body of the back-tracking Mirando and then back into the net. Messi was offside in the build-up to the goal, but such was the speed of Barcelona’s play that the linesman could have been forgiven for missing it. In teaming rain, two became three in the 26th minute when Messi took a throw by the right corner flag, got the ball back off Thiago and then skipped past three opponents before beating Courtois at his near post. Almost a spectator as Messi shone, Cesc Fabregas hit the bar with a chip, before his second-half pass sent Messi clear, only for Courtois to keep him out. The keeper then denied Villa but was fortunate to see Messi off-target when he spilled a Thiago cross.

It was only a temporary halt to the flow of goals, though, as with 12 minutes left Messi ghosted across the edge of the box and hit low across Courtois and into the bottom corner. He was not done there either, taking Villa’s pass to the left of the goal and drilling through Courtois’ legs to put the seal on another memorable night.

When Barcelona took a two goal lead after 12 minutes for the second consecutive week in La Liga many people could have wondered if the Blaugrana were going to crumble against Osasuna, as they did at Real Sociedad. But Pep Guardiola’s men went on to score six more goals without reply as Lionel Messi grabbed a hat-trick to condemn Jose Luis Mendilibar’s side to their first defeat of the season.

The Catalan side took the lead after five minutes when Dani Alves was afforded tonnes of space to find Messi at the back post, who put it into the net. Fabregas extended Barca’s lead seven minutes later when he played a wonderful one-two with Messi and smashed home with a fantastic left-foot volley.Fabregas was then denied by the keeper with both Messi and Abidal striking the woodwork. However, all doubts were later cast aside when David Villa slipped in behind the backline to meet Eric Abidal’s through ball before rounding Fernandez to slot home.

Xavi later picked the ball up 25-yards from goal. played it to Fabregas in the box and the former Arsenal captain controlled it before squaring to Messi who put it past Fernandez for his second. It took just 12 minutes of the second half for Barca to make it 6-0, Messi chipping the ball through for Xavi who took one touch to bring it down before lobbing Fernandez. Osasuna had a spell in which they looked dangerous and even had a goal chalked off for offside, but offered little more threat in the whole 90 minutes.

With 15 minutes left Villa grabbed his second of the game before Messi secured possession of the matchball in superb style by playing another delightful one-two with Fabregas then putting it past the goalkeeper in a one-on-one situation to make it 8-0.