Record-breaker Messi nets treble as Barca down APOEL

Barcelona went close in the 17th minute when Messi broke into the area despite the presence of three APOEL defenders. He cut the ball back, but Suarez was only able to shoot tamely at the hosts' keeper Pardo.

The Uruguayan, who joined Barcelona from Liverpool in the close season having been hit with a lengthy ban for biting at the World Cup, found the target 10 minutes later with a neat finish after a clever turn.

After Dani Alves was ruled out of Barcelona's final, decisive group game against PSG on Dec. 10 after picking up a silly booking, Messi made it two in the 38th minute, redirecting a Rafinha shot into the APOEL goal.

The Argentine increased his tally following a superb throughball from Alves, that left the diminutive playmaker with the relatively simple task of dinking it over the APOEL keeper.

Barcelona’s German keeper, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, a spectator for most of the night, was called on to make his first meaningful contribution in the 66th minute, pulling off an acrobatic save to his right to deny substitute Tomas De Vincenti.

Barcelona were reduced to 10 men, 20 minutes from the end when Rafinha received his marching orders after a second booking.

Guilherme was also dismissed five minutes before fulltime, moments before Messi rounded off the scoring with his 74th Champions League goal when he slotted home easily from Pedro’s cutback after the Spaniard had evaded the offside trap.