Lionel Messi's dazzling highlights from Montpellier 0-4 PSG are exactly what we've missed

Lionel Messi dropped one of his finest performances for Paris Saint-Germain to date on Saturday night.

It’s no secret that the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner hasn’t found life to be plain-sailing at the Parc des Princes, but you wouldn’t have known that was the case based on his performance against Montpellier.

And it was the trait that Messi has been criticised for the most this season that he excelled in during the Ligue 1 clash this weekend: goalscoring.

Going into the clash at the Mosson Stadium, the 34-year-old had only scored four league goals for PSG across the entire campaign, which is a monumental drop off compared to his Barcelona statistics.

It’s no wonder that so many supporters were poking fun at the Messi’s paltry tally when you consider that his final three seasons at Camp Nou saw 36, 25 and 30-goal hauls in the league.

However, the signs of improvements were there for everyone to see when Messi notched his first brace in France’s premier division during the champions’ emphatic 4-0 victory.

And it was the Argentina superstar who got the party started when he rounded off a slick team move by finding the bottom corner with a sweeping left-footed finish past Dimitry Bertaud.

Then, the footballing icon outdid himself by latching on to Kylian Mbappe’s stunning outside-of-the-boot pass to round the goalkeeper like it was nothing and tap home into the empty net.

But alas, Messi’s goalscoring exploits were merely the top-line statistics in a performance that was impressive across the board, earning him an almost perfecting rating of 9.9 out of 10 on SofaScore.

The data gurus rated Messi as the best player on the pitch with two goals, four key passes, four dribbles completed, one big chance created, 92 touches and a