Barcelona 4-0 Granada: Five Talking Points

The Catalan giants continued their impressive formBarcelona's first home league game of the season could not have transpired any better as they beat visiting Granada 4-0 in a typical Barcelona fashion. Having drawn away at Espanyol last week, this was a must game win for the hosts with Atletico Madrid breathing right down their necks. This game also marked satisfactory league debuts for the new boys, Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal.Barcelona dominated the game from the start, with Messi already having scored twice within the first 15 minutes. There were a few other great chances in the first half itself, which Barcelona failed to convert. Granada started the second half strong before Lionel Messi scored another to seal the game. Granada did call Bravo to action a couple of times late in the game, but it was Neymar who ended up scoring on the other side of the field to set the final scoreline at 4-0.Here are the major talking points from the game.

#1 Messi bags another Hat-trick

Messi is now the first player to score two or more hat-tricks against eight different teams

While the game might have been special for some of the players, it was just your normal walk in the park for Messi. Another day, another hat-trick. The Barcelona talisman opened up the scoring as early as the eighth minute. Only seven more minutes of play and Messi had already doubled the lead. He got his third in the second half when the ball bounced off the post from a Neymar shot.

With this hat-trick, Messi has now become the first player to score two or more hat-tricks against eight different teams! This performance only comes two days after he scored two and assisted another two against local rivals Espanyol in the Copa Del Rey round of 16 game. This unquestionably has been a wonderful start of the year for the all important Barcelona man and one can argue that there is little or no doubt regarding who is going to bag the Ballon d’Or later this week!