Monday 8 December 2014 11:56, UK
Barcelona boss Luis Enrique insists Lionel Messi is more than just a goal scorer after the Argentinian passed 400 club goals with his third hat-trick in four games in the 5-1 victory over Espanyol on Sunday.
The 27-year-old reached the milestone when he scored on the stroke of half-time to cancel out Sergio Garcia's opener for Espanyol, before adding his second five minutes after the interval.
Gerard Pique notched Barca's third three minutes later to put them firmly in control, before Pedro added gloss to the scoreline, and Messi turned it into a rout as he followed up hat-tricks against Sevilla and Apoel Nicosia with another three-goal haul.
Messi, who recently became the leading scorer in Primera Division history, has now scored 402 goals in competitive and friendly matches for Barca.
Messi's treble came just 24 hours after Cristiano Ronaldo set a new Primera Division record of 23 hat-tricks, but Enrique was just as impressed with his star's overall contribution as he was with his goal scoring exploits.
"What interests us really, in Leo's case, is that he brings as much as he can to the team," Enrique told Barcelona's official website.
"Today (Sunday), he's done that scoring goals but also he's created chances and he's also worked very hard defensively.
"He's shown maximum commitment as he has done since the start of the season."
Enrique pinpointed Messi's first goal as being crucial to swinging the match in Barcelona's favour as the Catalans won their seventh straight match in all competitions.
"I think the equaliser at the end of the first half was key and I think that gave us a deserved equaliser given what we had seen in the first half," the former Celta Vigo coach added.
"I think we were much better in the second half, we were much more fluid. The players when they got into the area were much more dangerous and we were much more effective in front of goal."
Meanwhile, Barcelona will discover before the end of the year whether their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against FIFA's decision to hand the club a transfer ban until January 2016 is successful.
CAS has confirmed that the appeal hearing took place on Friday and a decision will be made before the end of December.
