Ballon d'Or nominee Lionel Messi netted a hat-trick as Barcelona cruised to a 4-0 victory over Viktoria Plzen tonight.
Pep Guardiola's side went top of Group H and secured qualification to the knockout stages with the result, after AC Milan were earlier held to a draw by Belarusian minnows Bate Borisov.
Messi scored his first of the night, also his 200th in a Barca shirt, from the penalty spot after he was brought down by Marian Cisovsky.
The Plzen defender was sent off for the same incident, leaving the Czech side 1-0 down and reduced to ten men with only 22 minutes gone.
The Argentine then doubled his tally just before the break, slotting into the bottom-right corner after neat interplay with Adriano.
Plzen were thankful to goalkeeper Roman Pavlik, who twice denied Messi a third to keep the score at 2-0.
Former Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas did eventually beat Pavlik to wrap up the points for Barca with his fifth goal in seven games since joining the Catalan giants.
But the night belonged to Messi, who achieved another individual milestone by completing his hat-trick, becoming the first non-European player to score 40 Champions League goals in the process.
Joe Fish
