The Croatia international admitted he was in awe of his team-mate following yet another man-of-the-match performance
Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic has voiced his admiration for Lionel Messi in the wake of his record-breaking performance against Levante.
The Argentina international netted a hat-trick to help the Catalans to a 5-0 La Liga win at Camp Nou, which saw him tie Telmo Zarra for domestic hat-tricks (31) and draw level with Real Madrid nemesis Cristiano Ronaldo on Liga trebles (23).
But before he had even scored there was another record for the four-time Ballon d'Or winner as he superbly set up Neymar for the first goal to surpass Luis Figo's mark of 105 assists in the Primera Division.
"It's great that Messi is continuing to improve," Rakitic told the club's official website.
"He's taken home another match ball today.
"We love having him in the team and doing everything we can to help him."
The Croatia international then went on to voice his satisfaction with the win over Levante, before stressing that they cannot afford to lose focus in the remainder of the season.
"It was a nice all-round game. We worked hard and that's important. We need to carry on like this.
"There are 23-24 players in the squad and we all want to play. You don't notice the changes, and we really enjoyed ourselves out there against Levante.
"It'll be good to get some rest this week. The hardest but nicest part of the season is upon us."
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