UCL: Messi hat-trick downs City

Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick as Barcelona recorded a 4-0 win over Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in Wednesday night’s Champions League Group C clash at Camp Nou.
Claudio Bravo and Jeremy Mathieu saw red in the second period as both teams finished with 10 men, but a treble from Messi and late strike from Neymar, who also missed a penalty, ensured that it was a miserable return to Barcelona for Man City boss Guardiola.
The home supporters did not have much to shout about in the opening 15 minutes, but their team took the lead in the 17th minute of action when Messi took advantage of a unfortunate slip from Fernandinho inside the Man City box before moving the ball past Bravo and sliding home from close range.
It all came crashing down for the away side in the 53rd minute, however, when Bravo, on his return to Barcelona, received a straight red card after handling a Suarez effort outside of the penalty box, having cleared straight into the striker’s path in what was a poor mistake from the Chilean international.
It got worse for Guardiola’s side in the 61st minute when Barcelona scored a second and it was once again Messi that did the damage, finding the bottom corner with a well-placed strike after Iniesta had regained possession just outside the Man City box.
Barcelona were also reduced to 10 men in the 73rd minute, however, when Mathieu picked up two bookings in the space of two minutes – the second of which came after a lunge on Sterling, who was clear down the left.
Eventually Aguero was introduced for the visitors 10 minutes from time, but it was Barcelona that looked the more likely to add to the scoring and they had the chance to make it 4-0 from the penalty spot late on when Aleksandar Kolorov brought Messi to the deck with a poor challenge.
It was Neymar that stepped up to take the penalty, only to be denied by Caballero. The Brazilian did have his goal in the 89th minute, however, after combining with Messi and finishing into the back of the net from close range.