VALENCIA —

Lionel Messi netted his first hat trick of the La Liga season and provided two assists in yet another sensational individual display as a rampant Barcelona won 5-0 at Levante to strengthen their lead at the top of the table Sunday.

Messi, at his mesmeric best, notched the 31st La Liga hat trick of his career for Barca while also setting up goals for Luis Suarez and Gerard Pique.

“Suarez and Messi are the best striking partnership in the world. Luis has goals in his veins — and everything has already been said about Leo,” said defender Pique, paying tribute to Barca’s prolific South American double act.

Argentine Messi, who on Monday will collect for a record fifth time the Golden Shoe trophy that is awarded annually to the leading marksman in the top divisions of Europe’s soccer leagues, looks on a mission to repeat his 2017-18 success.

His treble took him to 14 league goals for the season, two more than any other striker in Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues.

Monaco slumps again

AS Monaco lost for the fourth time in five games as a rampant Olympique Lyonnais hammered them 3-0 Sunday to move into third place in Ligue 1.

The loss left Monaco, runner-up last season and champions in 2017, second bottom of the standings with 13 points from 17 games, five clear of last-placed Guingamp.

It has conceded 45 goals in all competitions this season, the most by any team in Europe’s top five leagues.

Houssem Aouar scored Lyon’s first after six minutes when he finished off a rebound close to goal and Nabil Fekir made it two 11 minutes before halftime.

Aleksandr Golovin made Monaco’s plight even more difficult when he got a straight red for a bad tackle early in the second half and Ferland Mendy compounded the misery for Thierry Henry’s side when made it 3-0 with a header.

Lyon has 31 points after 17 games, three behind Lille, which moved into second earlier in the day with a 3-2 win at Nimes.

Lille’s first league victory in Nimes since 1954 put the northern side on 34 points from 18 games, three above Lyon and five ahead of fourth-placed Montpellier, who have played two fewer games.

Paris St Germain remains runaway leader with 44 points from its unbeaten 16-game start.

In Nimes, Rafael Leao put the visitors ahead after five minutes, Jonathan Bamba doubled the with his eighth goal of the season, and Nicolas Pepe got a joint league leading 12th goal after 68 minutes to make it 3-0.

Rachid Alioui got one back for the home side and Clement Depres cut the deficit further in stoppage time with a header, but it was not enough.

Lille’s win came in spite of playing most of the game with 10 men after Jose Fonte was sent off for gesturing to an official after 16 minutes.

Ligue 1 has been disrupted over the last two weeks as several games were postponed because of widespread anti-government protests across France.

With many matches still to be rescheduled, some teams have played two games more than others. — Agencies