LaLiga 2018-19, Espanyol 0-4 FC Barcelona: 5 Hits and Flops

#1 Hit: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)

No right foot, no header. The left foot is more than enough to leave us spellbound.

No words could describe this man. We have completely run out of superlatives trying to describe the individual brilliance from this little man from Rosario, Argentina.

A day after he came under criticism from the legendary Pele, for not scoring with his right foot and head, he showed exactly why his left foot is more than enough. Despite not scoring with his head, he hit the post with his header and had a shot from his right foot saved by Diego Lopez.

When Lionel stood over the freekick, the jeers from Cornella crowd were growing in order to put him off. But they were no good as Messi spectacularly curled the ball into the top corner, completely out of Diego Lopez's reach.

He kept hitting the defense hard with his dribbles, showing scary pace at times. He helped out defensively with his pressing and unusually high work-rate.

The pressure that Espanyol mounted on him when he ran at them was humongous. Still, somehow he kept hold of the ball, went down but got up again to keep possession and picked Dembele with his unreal vision.

In the second half, he won another freekick, this time even further away from the box than the first one. Still, he stepped up and struck it with a curl as the ball sailed into the top corner.

A 10/10 performance for Lionel Messi. When he begins pressing, it is almost curtains for the opposition as Espanyol found out the hard way.

Pele's criticism just fades away with the first free-kick. France Football's ignorance doesn't have any effect on this man. The '5th-best' player in the world with a mammoth performance.