Lionel Messi has long been the best player in the game of soccer, whether you like to admit it or not. But those days could be over, and the mantle could be passed to Kylian Mbappe on the evidence of what he did to Messi and Barcelona on Tuesday night in Catalonia. Mbappe and PSG, playing without Neymar, destroyed Barcelona 1-4 to take a commanding lead into the second match of the series next month. Messi had scored penalty first only for Mbappe to wipe it out.

The French superstar then scored twice more in the second half, with one from Moise Kean coming in the middle of those. It’s hard to see where Barca can go from here. In the other Champions League action of the day, 2018-19 champs Liverpool took down RB Leipzig on the ‘road’ 0-2. Mo Salah and Sadio Mane both took full advantage of errors made by the German team, helping them get back to winning ways once more