Messi Hits Hat Trick

Lionel Messi scored a hat trick as Barcelona cruised to a 5-1 victory at Rayo Vallecano, who lost two players to red cards.
The Primera Division leaders restored the eight-point gap above Atletico Madrid and broke the Spanish record by completing their 35th game without defeat in all competitions.
Barcelona were gifted the lead midway through the first half when Rayo keeper Juan Carlos spilled a soft cross in front of Ivan Rakitic, who cleaned up to score the visitors’ opener.
It was 2-0 a minute later as Messi played Neymar through on the wing, and the Brazilian crossed back for the Argentine to completed a tidy finish inside the near post.

Rayo went down to 10 men in the 41st minute when Diego Llorente slid into Rakitic with a high boot and saw a straight red card.

Barcelona continued to press the hosts in the second half as Luis Suarez’s shot rebounded off the post directly to Messi, who tapped home to make it 3-0 in the 54th minute.
Rayo got a goal back when Bebe headed Adri Embarba’s cross back across the box for Manucho to score.
Later, Neymar’s free kick hit off the crossbar but fell to Sergio Busquets. He appeared to be in an offside position when he was pulled down from behind, but the referee still sent off Diego Llorente. However, Juan Carlos made up for his earlier error by saving the resulting penalty from Suarez.
But Rayo were still down to nine men, and Messi completed his hat trick after a long run on 72 minutes before Arda Turan added a fifth goal with a header late on.
Neymar picked up a late yellow card and will miss Barcelona’s next match against Eibar.