Lionel Messi 8, Antoine Griezmann 7, Sergio Busquets 8; Barcelona player ratings at Granada

Messi nets double as Barca hit form with thumping away win

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  BARCELONA RATINGS: Marc-Andre ter Stegen, 7 - Forced into a great save after the Barca midfield needlessly gave the ball away early on but didn’t have anything too taxing to deal with for the remainder of the game. AFP

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  Sergino Dest, 6 - The Dutchman was kept busy by the double-pronged attack on the Granada left early on, while going forward, the former Ajax man doesn’t quite look his vibrant, confident best and didn’t provide much penetration on the overlap. Replaced in the 81st minute by Junior Firpo. AFP

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  Samuel Umtiti, 7 - Showed great awareness to step out of defence to spring an offside trap that would have left his side open if he didn’t get it spot-on and the World Cup winner dealt well with the physical attention from Roberto Soldado before the forward was replaced. AFP

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  Oscar Mingueza, 6 - Cut out a teasing low cross as Granada looked to respond to going behind, but the 21-year-old had a couple of loose moments in possession that stunted his side’s attacks. Booked for pulling down Darwin Machis as the forward drove at the Barca backline. EPA

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  Jordi Alba, 7 - An easy night’s work for the ever-reliable full back, whose good run off the ball gave Griezmann space to drive into on the way to Barca’s second goal. Should have done better when he fired wide in the penalty area after being released by Busquets in the second half. Booked late on for dissent. AP

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  Sergio Busquets, 8 - The veteran midfielder’s pass deflected off Soldado and straight into the path of Griezmann for the game’s opener, before starting the move for Barca’s second via a neat pass to release Griezmann again. A brilliant pass gifted a chance for Alba in the 66th minute but his fellow Spaniard failed to make the most of it. Picked up a yellow card late on but it was a minor blemish on an excellent performance. AP

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  Pedri, 6 - Wriggled past a first-half challenge in the box but was unable to hit his shot with enough conviction and was easily charged down. The youngster was then blocked off the ball as he looked to get on the end of a counterattack, with Messi firing the resulting free-kick home to end the game as a contest. Switched for Trincao after 72 minutes. EPA

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  Frenkie de Jong, 7 - Gave the ball away deep in his own half in the opening three minutes and had ter Stegen to thank for saving his blushes with a fine save. He did recover from that, though, showing some lovely passing acumen with the ball at his feet. A driving run in the second half almost gave his side a fourth goal but his strike zipped just over, before he was replaced by Miralem Pjanic. EPA

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  Ousmane Dembele, 6 - Worked himself a yard just inside the penalty area and fired a fierce low strike that whistled just wide in the opening quarter of an hour. The Frenchman didn’t get a huge deal of joy down the Barca right but got an assist to his name with a cute scooped pass for Griezmann for his compatriot’s second. Replaced by Ricard Puig for the final 17 minutes or so. AFP

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  Antoine Griezmann, 7 - A Granada deflection gifted the striker an easy chance in the 14th minute and he was ice cool in dispatching the ball into the back of the net, before the forward’s foraying run and pass was excellently finished by Messi for 2-0. He wasn’t done there and did well to squeeze home a volley just after the hour to secure his brace. PA

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  Lionel Messi, 8 - A relatively quiet opening 35 minutes came to an end when he beautifully stroked the ball home from the edge of the box to double his side’s advantage, before adding a second to his tally with a quite brilliant low free kick that flew past the keeper before he had chance to get down to it. Replaced by Martin Braithwaite after 64 minutes. EPA

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  SUBS: Martin Braithwaite (Messi, 65’), 6 - Brought down by last defender Jesus Vallejo as he strode towards goal, resulting in a red card. AP

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  Miralem Pjanic (de Jong, 66’), 6 s- Slotted seamlessly into the Barca midfield machine and helped maintain his side’s dominance for the final quarter of the match. Getty

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  Trincao (Pedri, 73’), N/R – Arguably the quietest of the wave of Barcelona subs at the midway point of the second half and didn’t really get into the game. EPA

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  Ricard Puig (Dembele, 73’), N/R – Sliced open the home defence with a brilliant pass for Braithwaite in the build-up to Granada’s red card. AP

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  Junior Firpo (Dest, 81’), N/R – Brought on to give Dest a rest and didn’t have any serious defending to do in his short cameo. Getty

Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann each scored twice as Barcelona thrashed Granada 4-0 away to win a third consecutive La Liga game for the first time this season.

Griezmann opened the scoring in the 12th minute while Messi struck twice before the break to make it four goals in his last two matches and go top of the league's scoring charts with 11 goals.

French forward Griezmann scored a classy second goal after halftime while things got worse for Granada when Jesus Vallejo was sent off in the 78th minute for clattering into Barca substitute Martin Braithwaite.

The victory took Barca back into third place in the standings with 34 points, narrowing the gap on leaders Atletico Madrid to four points - although Atletico, whose game with Bilbao was postponed due to heavy snow in the Spanish capital, have three matches in hand.

"This is an important win, we knew we were in a difficult situation and couldn't afford to lose any more games and it's been a very good week for us, winning three games, all away from home, and while playing some very good football," said Barca coach Ronald Koeman.

"We showed that the team is growing in quality and in confidence. I'm very pleased that we scored four goals and we need to keep playing like we did today, when we only needed a few chances to score."

Player ratings from the match can be seen in the gallery above. To view the next image, click on the arrows or swipe on the picture.