as lionel messi took control of the ball in a crowded penalty area before bursting into the six yard box and sitting the  goalkeeper on his backside with the subtlest of feints, records went tumbling again the barcelona forward, as he so often does, stole the show at the nou camp on sunday as luis enrique's side put rayo vallecano to the sword with a 6 1 victory that sent the catalans to the top of la liga rivals real madrid were beaten by athletic bilbao on saturday and barca took full advantage as they recorded their biggest league win since the opening day of the season to take control of the title race lionel messi leaves the field with the match ball after netting a 12 minute hat trick on sunday  barcelona forward messi looks to the sky as he celebrates following his second goal against rayo vallecano  el clasico all time top scorer   21  most goals in a single season   73  ballon d'or winner   4  barcelona all time goalscorer (official)   395  la liga all time goalscorer   273  champions league top scorer   75  la liga assists   106  catalan derby top scorer    12  like our barcelona facebook page luis suarez netted the first and last during the rout but in between, along with a gerard pique goal, the irrepressible messi scored a 12 minute hat trick   the fastest of his career   as 10 man rayo crumpled in the second half you would be forgiven for thinking there were any records left to break for the 27 year old the graphic above by grup14com perfectly illustrates messi's dominance over the last decade the argentina forward has outperformed legends of the game such as alfredo di stefano, gerd muller and michel platini to lay claim to some illustrious accolades and messi's record breaking shows no sign of abating here, we look at the statistics following his latest goalscoring exploits the argentina international netted his first of the afternoon from the penalty spot  messi celebrates after finding the bottom corner with his spot kick to make it 3 0 to barcelona  the 27 year old taps home from close range in front of a packed nou camp as barca went top of la liga  messi's goalscoring rival cristiano ronaldo drew a blank against athletic bilbao as real madrid lost 1 0  messi brilliantly rounds rayo vallecano goalkeeper cristian alvarez to seal his hat trick  messi taps into the empty net after securing his hat trick with a sublimely taken goal 
barcelona rayo vallecano 6 1 the nou camp sunday catalan real madrid lionel messi 12 minute the second half rayo vallecano messi fifth la liga cristiano ronaldo argentina spanish athletic bilbao telmo zorra 27 year old six consecutive seasons ronaldo portugal this season argentine second the start of 2015 2015
barcelona beat rayo vallecano 6 1 at the nou camp in la liga on sunday . win moved the catalan side to the top of the table after real madrid lost . lionel messi scored a 12 minute hat trick in the second half . the barcelona forward set more records with his latest treble . click here for all the latest barcelona news . the hat trick against rayo vallecano on sunday was messi's fifth treble of the season . messi has now scored 24 la liga hat tricks, beating the record set by cristiano ronaldo, who has 23 . the argentina forward has now scored more hat tricks (32) in all competitions than any other player for a spanish club, surpassing former athletic bilbao striker telmo zorra . the 27 year old has now scored more than 40 goals in all competitions in six consecutive seasons . despite ronaldo's blistering start to the league campaign, messi has now equalled the portugal international's tally of 30 goals this season . just for good measure the argentine also leads the way for assists this season (14), four more than ronaldo in second . since the start of 2015 messi has netted 15 league goals in just 10 games . the barcelona forward has scored and assisted 22 goals in 2015, which is more than any other team in the top flight has scored 