"Messi is the Di Stéfano of the 21st century"

"It was the universal Barcelona, the number one, the Barça of the people... they will be remembered with whichever words occur to us. Barça caught us in a weak state of mind, but other teams come here in better shape and the same thing happens. They must have something, no?" mused Quique Sánchez Flores after his side's 3-0 defeat at Camp Nou on Saturday night; and that something is the double Ballon d'Or winner. "Messi is the Di Stéfano of the 21st century."

Sánchez Flores had noted with trepidation how Barcelona can hypnotize the opposition when in possession and so it came to pass for the opening goal. Messi picked up a square pass in Atlético territory, glided past its entire defense - causing Filipe Luis and Paulo Assunção to clatter into each other while tracking him, at the same time adding another small footnote to Atlético's season-long encyclopedia of defensive blunders - and lashed home from the edge of the area in what is fast becoming the Argentinean's trademark strike. That Atlético could not defend it is not indefensible. No other team has yet found a way within the rules of the game to stop the world's best forward.

"I felt that the only player who could help us control the match was Fran [Mérida]. If we wanted to play from our half we would have to go through him, playing off the back of Xavi, [Sergio] Busquets and [Andrés] Iniesta... It didn't work out as we had hoped," sais Sánchez Flores of a first half Barcelona comfortably controlled.

Messi's second of the game came courtesy of another mix up in the visitor's back line, with Antonio López conspiring to allow the Barça number 10 to wriggle through on goal when crashing the ball into the stand would have been an appropriate reaction. Messi scores many beautiful goals; this one will not linger long in the collective memory but it brought the striker level with Cristiano Ronaldo in the race to be crowned Liga top scorer.

The half drew to a close with a crunching tackle by Dani Alves on Sergio Agüero, whose industrious running was not matched by any craft from his midfield. In the absence of Diego Forlán, Messi's international teammate was asked to play as a lone striker, a role he far from revels in. Alves' scything entrance left Agüero in a crumpled heap, Tiago's swift free-kick left the ball in the back of the net and Alves might well have left the field. As it transpired referee Turienzo Alvarez showed a yellow card to the Brazilian and annulled Tiago's effort - the Portuguese midfielder had launched his shot goalward as the official was still dealing with Alves.

Sánchez Flores brought Forlán into the fray for the second half and Atlético enjoyed a period of ascendancy. Filipe Luis should have scored but found Gerard Piqué's head with Víctor Váldes beaten and the home crowd finally found its voice to admonish Atlético's temerity in keeping the ball for occasionally productive spells. It was not long before the balance of the match was restored though, with David de Gea saving smartly from a rare Messi header as Barcelona once again pressed forward. The Argentinean's third compounded Atlético's woe. Through on goal, Diego Godín and De Gea were unable to prevent Messi from bundling the ball over the line and the Atlético keeper received an accidental boot in the face from David Villa for his efforts.

As the clock ticked down a Mexican wave swept through Camp Nou. The few Atlético fans that had made the trip north could not help but join in. By then, there was little left to hope for on the pitch and the urge to celebrate Messi's presence thereon is as universal as Barcelona itself.

The home side's coach, Pep Guardiola, accustomed to excellence, did not share Sánchez Flores' eloquent praise for his charges after the match. "If we play like that against Real, they'll win the [King's] cup final," he noted sourly. It is a mark of the level that Barcelona has reached that its coach can find fault in a 3-0 win. And the stark truth is that his team was not excellent because it had no need to be. Sometimes, second gear is sufficient; against Atlético, it was more than enough.