Though Lionel Messi finished fifth in the Ballon d'Or voting, his teammate, Sergio Busquets, is in no doubt that the Argentinian is the best in the world.
The Spaniard was left open-mouthed by Messi's astonishing accuracy from two set-pieces, both freekicks which he scored directly.
"We already know what Leo is capable of," Busquets said to reporters after the match.
"In practice there is no barrier with players, but he has a tremendous level of effectiveness.
"For us Leo is fundamental, either with freekicks or in play, which is why he is the best player in the world."
Busquets valued Barcelona's performance in the Catalan derby, in which they were victorious with an emphatic 4-0 win.
"I think we played a good first half," he continued.
"In the second, we had to make sure they didn't hurt us.
"They have a system that is a bit similar to ours, but in general terms we were better."
liverpoli
318
OBVIOUSLY GOAT MESSI IS THE BEST
AmanSharma
245
balloon d'Or 2019 loading....
RealMd13
236
👑 MESSI was brilliant tonight against Espanyol he had to show People who he Is cuz a lot of us including PeLe had started to forgetten what Messi is capable of doing when he Is pissed off 😡 and tonight we saw how hard its is to stop this genius and alien 👽 of a player that I call a man with feet of a GOD!
MrPerfect
184
Pele After Watching Messi's Game Tonight.. That Was Maradona's Weed I Didn't Say Anything...
EmilyRose
127
Obviously Messi is the best footballer in the world...
Lionelmarcos
115
LA LIGA:::MESSI--11 goals and 8 assists UCL:::6 goals the guy is on fire..
Bandiken
89
When they say best player in the world, he needs to be consistent, with Barcelona and Argentina. Please correct urself and say Messi is the best player of Barcelona not the world. Only u Barcelona dump asses would compare Messi to Pele. What Pele said is true Messi is a one footed player no matter how good he is with the one foot so stop making stupid comparisons and keep quiet. When Messi would have a world cup with 1000goals then come back and talk with Pele