‘The best there ever was’ - Fans react to Messi’s staggering hat-trick

The stellar recent form of the Spanish champions continued, as Barcelona brushed Betis aside by 4 goals to 1.

Lionel Messi opened the game's scoring with 18 minutes on the clock, bending home a sumptuous free-kick from the edge of the box:

And the Argentinian magician was back at it again on the stroke of half-time, latching onto a perfectly-weighted reverse pass from Luis Suarez to smash home in typically-clinical fashion:

Suarez then turned goalscorer just past the hour-mark, embarking on a stunning jinking run before slotting home the visitors' 3rd of the night:

Betis did manage to pull one back ten minutes from time through Loren Moron, but it proved little more than a consolation, as Lionel Messi went on to seal his hat-trick with a frankly-ridiculous chipped finish:

'The best there is. The best there was. The best there ever will be.'

So incredible was Barcelona's talisman at the Benito Villamarin this evening, that his 3rd of the night actually saw the home crowd provide a standing ovation for the 31-year-old, amid deafening chants of 'Messi, Messi, Messi'.

And the Betis faithful were far from the only ones to have been mesmerised by what they witnessed from Messi tonight, with fans, pundits and everyone in between having since taken to Twitter in their absolute droves to pay tribute to the greatest player on the planet: