Barcelona's first competitive game of the 2018-19 season took place in Morocco on Sunday night against Sevilla.

In a repeat of the Copa del Rey final from April, the Catalan giants won 2-1 to lift the Spanish Super Cup after Ousmane Dembele's stunning winner.

Barca signed exciting youngsters like Arthur and Malcom this summer, but their main man will once again be the great Lionel Messi.

The match was the forward's first since France 4-3 Argentina at the World Cup and marked his debut as Barcelona's official club captain.

Messi continues to amaze the footballing world, and there was one moment versus Sevilla where he proved he is the ultimate playmaker.

Messi runs the show in Morocco

Before Ivan Rakitic and Philippe Coutinho came off the bench, everything good and creative about Barca's play went through Messi.

The 31-year-old dropped deep at times, tried to find space between the lines, set up numerous chances and also got into the box to be a goal threat.

Messi's almost telepathic understanding with Jordi Alba was on show, his free-kick led to Gerard Pique's goal and his range of passing was superb.

Messi literally splits Sevilla's defence

The Argentine produced a scoop pass on the edge of the area but the pick of the bunch was probably his sumptuous effort to find Luis Suarez.

Midway through the first-half, as shown below, Messi literally split Sevilla's back four into two with a phenomenal outside-of-the-foot through ball.

Messi, who scored 45 goals in 54 games last season, managed to bend the ball around both Ever Banega and two of Sevilla's four defenders to find Suarez.

It was yet another example, as if we needed reminding, that Barca's number ten is truly world-class in so many disciplines besides goalscoring.

New position for Messi?

In the double-winning 2017-18 campaign, Ernesto Valverde typically deployed four central midfielders with Messi in a free role behind striker Suarez.

However, in Morocco, Messi operated mostly in the inside-right channel, with Suarez leading the line and the electric Dembele on the left-wing.

The Spanish champions have a friendly with Boca Juniors on Wednesday before kicking off their La Liga title defence at home to Alaves on Saturday.

What are YOUR thoughts on Messi's pass to Suarez during the Spanish Supercopa? Is Messi the best playmaker and player in the world? Have YOUR say in the comments box below!