Barcelona returned to the top of La Liga on Saturday night after beating Sevilla 4-2 in a highly eventful contest at the Nou Camp.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen produced a string of truly stunning saves to preserve Barca's lead, which was given to them by the magic of Lionel Messi.
His phenomenal pass assisted Philippe Coutinho's opener two minutes into the match and he followed that up with a lovely curled effort into the bottom corner himself.
However, Messi's involvement ended in the 26th-minute due to him suffering a terrible injury, falling with huge awkwardness onto his right arm and elbow.
Before being forced off, Messi was in the midst of a virtuoso display, and Gary Lineker had a Ballon d'Or-themed message after watching the Argentinian against Sevilla.
BALLON D'OR TALK IS UPON US
It's getting to the time of year when everyone, from fans to pundits, start to speculate over which footballer will win the coveted Ballon d'Or award.
The Best FIFA Men's Player for 2018 has already been given to Real Madrid's Luka Modric, who won it ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed Salah.
Incredibly, Messi didn't make the final three-man shortlist for that award and seems somewhat of an outsider to take home the 2018 Ballon d'Or trophy.
LINEKER'S BALLON D'OR TWEET ABOUT MESSI
Lineker is a long-time admirer of Messi and only needed to see 15 minutes of the Barca captain in action on Saturday to drop his thoughts on the Ballon d'Or.
The Match of the Day presenter seems to be convinced that the people who determine the winner of the prestigious award simply don't watch La Liga.
In Lineker's mind, he can't think of another reason as to why five-time winner Messi has been beaten to the prize by Ronaldo in each of the past two years.
As you can see below, the 57-year-old Englishman tweeted: "I honestly think that those who decide on who wins the Ballon d’Or etc. don’t watch La Liga.
"Otherwise, how could anyone else win but (Lionel) Messi. A superb assist and an even better goal in the first 15 minutes."
IS MESSI THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD?
Most football purists would certainly agree with Lineker's stance that Messi's all-round game of goalscoring and playmaking put him above everyone else in the world.
However, with both the Argentine and Ronaldo tied on five Ballon d'Or's each, there's every chance that the Barca captain will miss out again.
In addition to Cristiano, Modric's FIFA award makes him a serious contender, whilst the likes of Salah and World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe may be in with a shout too.
That's despite Messi enjoying a league and cup double last season, where he recorded a ridiculous 45 goals and 18 assists in 54 games.
The 31-year-old already has 12 goals and five assists in 2018-19, but only time will tell whether or not he will be officially crowned as the world's best.
