With coach Pep Guardiola watching from the stands as he serves out his one-game touchline ban, Barca sent in Thierry Henry for Bojan for the restart. And the Catalans made sure that they were the ones who made the more threatening start to the second period.
The Blaugrana pressed forward in numbers immediately and Xavi had the first chance of the half when he was picked out by Dani Alves, but the unmarked playmaker mistimed his header and smashed his attempt high and wide.
The best scoring chance came on 52 minutes when Henry burst down the right and pulled a low cross back to Messi, whose first time shot was miraculously kept out by Cesar’s outstretched toes. But the incessant pressure paid off on 55 minutes as Barcelona deservedly went ahead. Messi picked up a pass from Xavi and breezed past three defenders before slotting home a clinical finish past Cesar at the near post.
Barca thought they had doubled their advantage on 66 minutes when Xavi’s blistering shot was parried out by Cesar and Maxwell easily tapped the rebound into the empty net, but the flag had already gone up for offside.
Los Che should have equalised on 68 minutes when Pablo released Nikola Zigic clean through on goal with no Barca defenders in sight, but the giant striker’s tame shot outside the box was blocked by Valdes. And Valencia were quickly punished for that gilt-edged miss when Maduro was sent off for a late tackle on Messi.
With ten minutes on the clock, Messi made it 2-0 to Barcelona with another superlative strike. Henry’s long ball from the left flank was brought down expertly by the Argentine, who charged into the box, checked past Dealbert and rifled the ball into the bottom corner.
And before Valencia could catch their breath, Messi completed his hat-trick. The visitors lost the ball in their own half and allowed Henry to slip Lionel towards goal. ‘El Mesias’ again outfoxed Dealbert before clipping a cheeky shot past a stranded Cesar with the inside of his right foot.
Los Che were shell shocked and they quietly faded away into the Camp Nou night as Messi left the pitch to a standing ovation while increasing his tally to 22 goals in the Pichichi race.
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