Athletic Club vs Barcelona

Lionel Messi was at the top of his game as Barcelona secured a 3-2 victory over Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday to move up to third place in La Liga.

- Barca estimates: Pedri suggests he could be the answer after Messi

Athletic started their dream game in their first game under new coach Marcelino when forward Inaki Williams drove down the ball and ran towards the goal, hitting one defender before shooting into the net in the third minute.

Barca responded quickly, however, with a goal from a happy team, with Messi moving the ball wide of the field to clear Frankkie de Jong with a long line and the Dutchman opened the ball and put it back in place for the 18-year-old Pedri to return home.

Messi and Pedri got together nicely to put Barca ahead, the boy getting a pass from Argentina before returning it with a good backheel and Messi rolled the ball into the bottom corner in the 38th minute.

Messi also hit in the 62nd minute to complete another brilliant team and missed a few chances to complete his hat-trick, although Iker Muniain made a tough decision by beating Athletic in the 90th.

The victory took Barca over Real Sociedad and moved into third place with 31 points, seven behind leaders Atletico Madrid with two games in hand for the Catalans.

If you agree early it is natural to lose your head but we showed a lot of confidence to make sure that doesn't happen Pedri said.

We knew it was a important game and that's how we did it. We knew they were going to look at Inaki for his speed but we over came that and got three very important points.

The victory led Barca manager Ronaldo Koeman to reconsider his earlier optimistic comments about his team's limited chances of holding Atletico.

"That's the way we need to keep going. I felt like we were in control of the game all the time and there was nothing immersed in our game," Koeman told a news conference.

The title race is still open because the season is very long. There can be injuries, teams can have downturns and a side looks  good can end up struggling," he said. The Dutchman also praised Messi, who produced arguably his best performance of the season and was unlucky not to grab a hat-trick

Messi had a poor season in terms of his standards but his points led him to nine goals in the campaign, making him a La Liga joint scorer.

Messi has pulled it whole off since day one, he has spent so many years at a very high level but it looks like he is now very successful," Koeman said. He has always shown his ability and commitment but today he has given us his goals as well.

To Pedri, Koeman added: "He plays with great maturity despite his age and most importantly he uses his head."

The Athletic Williams striker said his team played well but did not have the strength to stop Barca while Messi was in top form.

We played a good first half it was the Athletic we wished for to be but we were up against the best player in the world and you changed it to the other side," he said.

The goals they scored tonight were great and there is very little you can do to defend yourself in such games.