Watch: Lionel Messi Single Handedly Decided The Result Of The Barcelona vs Juventus Champions League Match

Lionel Messi has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently, from the rumor about him leaving Barcelona to struggling to digest Cristiano Ronaldo’s dominance in the last season. However, the fact is, Barcelona has kick started their Champions League 2017/18 with a bang winning all the four encounters, including the home game, Barcelona vs Juventus.

Well, for the unknown, Juventus defeated Barcelona by 3-0 last season in the quarterfinals before taking an aggregate lead in the second leg and when Lionel Messi struck for the second time yesterday, the scoreboard reflected that he has given Barca the much-needed revenge.

Lionel Messi netted a brilliant brace as Barcelona recorded a dominant victory over Juventus by 3-0 and interestingly, it was also the first time that Messi defeated Juventus’ goalkeeper was Gigi Buffon, who had managed to keep him without a goal in their previous three meetings.

Ousmane Dembele made his first start for the Catalan club and 20-year-old France forward helped Lionel Messi in scoring his first goal of the Barcelona vs Juventus game when they caught the visitors’ off-guard.

Lionel Messi took the ball from Dembele, worked it with a quick one-two passing combination with Suarez and then struck a left-footed shot just inside the far post, defeating Buffon in the 45th minute. Messi then helped make it 2-0 in the 56th minute when Stefano Sturaro cleared a dangerous low cross by the Argentine, back to Rakitic, who fired it home.

Lionel Messi got his double in the 66th minute when he traveled with the ball to the right side, cut back to go around Juventus’ defense before he left Buffon haywire with another left-footed strike which touched the lower corner of his net.

His brace took the tally to 3-0 in Barcelona’s favor and Juventus were reeling due to their weak defense and lack of intent in the attack.

Lionel Messi was all over the place and it seemed like he wanted to show the world that Barcelona still is a dominating side after all that has happened.

Watch Lionel Messi making even the best of defenders look small.

While Lionel Messi, Barcelona’s all-time top scorer, has scored eight goals in six appearances across all competitions this season, his brace during the Barcelona vs Juventus meant that he now has 96 goals in the Champions League.