Lionel Messi has taken his tally to eight goals in three games after scoring another breathtaking hat-trick as Barcelona defeated Zaragoza by four goals to two.

Before the game, there had been football players, managers and football critics raving about how Messi is the best player in the world. Today's performance added even more weight to those claims and showed why Messi should be aiming to become the best player ever, not just the best in the world.

Messi opened the scoring for Barcelona within five minutes. Some great work down the wing by Pedro saw Messi cooly head in his cross into the corner.

His second goal came in the second half on the 66th minute. It was a delight. Messi beat several players with sublime skill and precisely found the corner of the goal with a low drive. It was trademark Messi goal and one any striker in football history would be delighted with.

Messi completed his hat-trick for the second La Liga game running in the 78th minute. Substitute Iniesta opened up the Zaragoza defense and slotted to Messi. Messi took the ball inside and unleashed another devastating looping finish from 18 yards out.

Zaragoza substitute Colunga gave the visitors hope with two quality finishes in the 85th and 89th minutes of the game. However, Messi was in no mood to see Barcelona drop points and won a penalty with another dazzling mazy run in extra time. Ibrahimovic, who will be disappointed by his finishing today, stepped up to score the penalty to ensure another 3 points for Barcelona which puts them level on points with Real Madrid at the top of La Liga.