Messi celebrates Balon d’or with his 35th hat-trick

Sports Live: FC Barcelona turned on the style and Leo Messi scored yet another hat-trick to ensure they remain top of the Liga Santander after a 5-2 win at home to Mallorca on Saturday night.

Leo Messi collected the sixth Balon d’Or of his career last Monday and after showing it to the fans in the Camp Nou stadium before kickoff, he then showed why he earned the award with another outstanding display: the Argentinean scored the 35th hat-trick of his career.

Messi doubled the lead in the 17th minute with a curling left-foot shot from outside of the area which left Manuel Reina helpless and the home side were in complete control.

Luis Suarez hit the post in the 27th minute of the game after a neat exchange of passes with Sergi Roberto, while Messi saw another shot saved and Suarez should probably have done better when he went through on Reina only to lose his balance after a light contact.

With Barca playing as well as they have done all season a third goal looked to be a matter of time, but it was Mallorca who scored it when Ante Budimir, whose shot took a slight deflection into the Barca net.

Dhaka 08 December (campuslive24.com)//IHA

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