Barcelona star Lionel Messi poured more misery on beleaguered Valencia boss Gary Neville on Wednesday, recording a hat trick in his side's first leg of its Copa del Rey semifinal meeting with Los Che.
3 - Lionel Messi has scored his third hat-trick in Copa del Rey, the first one since 2011 (Valencia, Betis & Atletico). Implacable.
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) February 3, 2016
The diminutive Ballon d'Or winner neatly prodded the ball beyond Maty Ryan for his first and Barca's third on 29 minutes:
With Valencia reeling from the dismissal of Shkodran Mustafi, Messi received a neat assist from Luis Suarez and passed by two Valencia defenders with ease before slotting home for his second:
To complete the treble, Messi capitalised on the defence's inability to clear the ball and blasted it under Ryan:
With Suarez bagging four goals in the tie, Barcelona strolled to a 7-0 victory leaving the second leg on Feb. 10 looking nothing more than a formality.