Lionel Messi completes hat-trick (Video)

Lionel Messi scored two second-half goals against Manchester City to complete his hat-trick.

After a good start to their Champions League match against Barcelona, Manchester City have collapsed in the second half. Claudio Bravo, recently purchased from Barcelona, got sent off after handling the ball outside of the box. Since then, the Spanish side have dominated.

Lionel Messi went on to add two more goals to his first half strike, taking his total in the Champions League this season to six. He also now has 15 goals in 13 matches against English clubs. If Messi’s first goal was a little underwhelming by his standards, the second was closer to what we’re used to seeing.

The Argentine picked the ball up near the top of the box, cut onto his left foot and curled a low shot past Willy Caballero at his near post.

His third was a simple tap in after Luis Suarez broke into the box down the left.

Manchester City will not catch Barcelona now. If the result holds, it will be four consecutive matches without a win for Pep Guardiola’s side. They drew their last Champions League match against Celtic, before losing their first match of the season to Tottenham in the Premier League. They followed that result up with a 1-1 draw against Everton (though, to be fair, they completely dominated that game), and now look set to lose to Barcelona.

The concern is that, if City finish second in the group, they will draw a team like Juventus, Real Madrid, or one of Bayern Munich or Atletico Madrid (who are in the same group) in the second round.

Guardiola’s task as City manager is to take the club into that sort of company, but recent history suggests they have a long way to go. Despite making it to the semifinals of the competition last season, they lost to the first truly elite team they face in Real Madrid.