When even the rival fans are applauding you, you know you have done something special. Messi, though, is used to special. But even for him, the sight of the Real Betis fans were applauding by the end tugged on the heartstrings. The Argentine ace scored another spectacular hat-trick to fire Barcelona to a 4-1 victory on Sunday.
Messi’s treble, his second in a month in Seville, fourth of the season and 51st of his career, moves Barca 10 points clear of Atletico Madrid with 10 games left to play, a gap surely too big to close.
Messi now has 29 league goals this season, 39 in all competitions, and together with Suarez’s 18 their joint-total of 47 is more than all but two of the other teams in the division.
If you missed the game, catch up on the goals and highlights in our Twitter round-up:
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