Lionel Messi scored the 30th hat-trick of his Barcelona career.

The Argentina forward, who missed out on winning the Ballon d'Or to Real's Cristiano Ronaldo on Monday, opened the scoring with a looping header.

He netted again when he collected Neymar's pass and dinked the ball over home goalkeeper Fabricio Agosto.

Messi grabbed his third with a low shot, before an own goal from Sidnei.

Ex-Barcelona winger Isaac Cuenca had a chance for Deportivo but shot over when the score was 2-0, although the hosts were comprehensively outclassed.

It was a dominant performance from Luis Enrique's Barca, who had 68% possession and 14 attempts at goal with the only surprise being that they scored only four.

The future of Messi, La Liga's all-time record goalscorer, has been questioned recently after he said "I don't know where I'll be next year", although Enrique then insisted he would not sell the 27-year-old.

Messi has now scored six of his side's last eight league goals and Barcelona's victory was their 14th in 19 league matches this season.

Lionel Messi's hat-trick was his 22nd in La Liga, the same number as Alfredo Di Stefano and Telmo Zarra. Real's Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 23 La Liga hat-tricks.

He could have opened the scoring early on, but his low effort from 12 yards was scooped on to the crossbar by Agosto.

Nevertheless, Messi got his first a minute later, heading in Ivan Rakitic's fine cross, before it became 2-0 when Messi showed great control and composure to lift the ball over the advancing Agosto.

The striker secured his 22nd La Liga treble - and his 30th in all competitions - when Deportivo lost concentration, enabling Rakitic to take a short corner to Messi, who sprinted into the penalty area, cut inside on to his left foot and arrowed a shot into the bottom corner.

It had been a miserable day for the hosts and it got worse when Alberto Lopo's clearance bounced off helpless team-mate Sidnei and into his own net for Barcelona's fourth.

culled from bbc sport