Messi hits 3 as Barca beats Guardiola's Manchester City

Messi hits 3 as Barca beats Guardiola's Manchester City. October. 21, 2016 07:10. by 정윤철기자 trigger@donga.com. Recovered from injury and back on the field, Lionel Messi has left a bruise on his former coach and teammates.

At the third round of the Champions League group C game between FC Barcelona of the Spanish Primera Liga and Manchester City of the English Premier League held on Thursday, Messi pulled a 4-0 victory by scoring a hat-trick. Despite the 3-week groin injury lay-off, Messi still showed off his powerful scoring skills by spotting the net as a substitute at last Saturday's league match, and three more as a first up at the match with Man City.

As Messi and Neymar collected a total of four goals, the "MSN Trio" (Messi, Suarez, and Neymar) has recorded 103 goals in total this year. What's more, Messi once again proved his reputation as an "EPL killer," by scoring 16 goals out of 15 matches against English teams.

Currently leading Man City, then-Barca coach Pep Guardiola trained Messi from 2008 to 2012. As the one who sees through Messi's playing style, this has led expectations that Pep will effectively offset the offence from Barca. Nevertheless, Man City fell hopelessly by allowing Messi score multiple goals.

Man City goalie Claudio Bravo who gained a competitive edge during the national match also had to lower his head in front of Messi this time. The Chilean goalkeeper who was formerly with Barca until the last season met Messi twice during the South American Championship finals, and spearheaded a victorious path for Chile as he defended well against Messi's shots during the penalty shoot-out. Now as an enemy, Messi made the first goal in the first 17 minutes in front of Bravo. Moreover, Bravo was sent off for hand-saving the shot made by Barca's striker Luis Suarez outside the penalty area at the 53rd minute.