Messi scores and assists twice in Barca victory

Barcelona opened up a comfortable lead in their Copa del Rey last-16 clash with Espanyol after winning the first leg 4-1 against nine men at Camp Nou.

After falling behind early on, thanks to Felipe Caicedo’s goal, holders Barca retaliated within four minutes thanks to Lionel Messi and went on to dominate proceedings.

Messi added his 241st goal in 241 home matches for the hosts with a sensational free-kick just before half-time and then teed up Gerard Pique in the early stages of the second period for Barcelona’s third as Espanyol were unable to handle Luis Enrique’s men.

The away side were reduced to 10 men with 18 minutes left following the dismissal of Hernan Perez and then saw Pape Diop handed a straight red – apparently for a comment made in the direction of Luis Suarez – as Espanyol lost all discipline late on.

Neymar rubbed salt into their wounds with an excellent fourth at the end of Messi’s second assist of the night in the 88th minute.

The evening started in a very different fashion for Espanyol, however.

Having soaked up early pressure from Barca – for whom Ard Turan was making his debut – they took the lead against the run of play in the ninth minute. Marco Asensio dispossessed Dani Alves inside the visitors’ half and broke 60 yards before playing in Caicedo, who beat Marc-Andre Ter Stegen to his bottom left-hand corner.

Pau Lopez had to be alert when Messi broke through, with the Espanyol goalkeeper again leaping at the feet of a Barcelona forward to maintain his clean sheet, but his goal was breached soon after.

Andreas Iniesta’s throughball picked out Messi and the Argentina star fired beyond Lopez.

Ter Stegen tipped over Abraham Gonzalez’s free-kick as Espanyol maintained the rapid pace of the game after the Barcelona equaliser, while Neymar dragged narrowly wide as the visitors struggled to contain Barca’s front three.