Barcelona's evergreen Dani Alves records historic hat trick (of sorts) in LaLiga vs. Atletico Madrid

 He may now be among the oldest outfield players still active at the top level of the professional game, but Barcelona's Dani Alves is still lighting up LaLiga as he approaches his 39th birthday.

Back at Camp Nou for a second stint, the Brazilian veteran enjoyed an action-packed evening in Sunday's thrilling 4-2 win over Atletico Madrid (stream the replay on ESPN+ in the U.S.), stealing the limelight by completing a historic hat trick (of sorts).

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Barca fell behind to an early Yannick Carrasco opener only for Alves to kick off his involvement by providing the assist for a near-immediate equaliser -- the right-back floating a lofted pass across the Atleti penalty area for Jordi Alba to deftly volley home.

Barca charged into a 3-1 lead at half-time before Alves added a fourth mere minutes after the restart, powering home a loose ball to score his first goal for the Catalan club since December 2015 (against Villanovense in the Copa del Rey). At the grand old age of 38 years and 276 days Alves also became the fourth-oldest player to score in a LaLiga match since the turn of the century.

The assist for Alves' goal came from young midfielder Gavi, who wasn't born when the Brazilian first made his LaLiga debut with Sevilla in 2002.

The evergreen right-back can now also claim to be the seventh-oldest goal scorer in the entire history of the Spanish top flight, as well as the oldest player ever to score a league goal for Barcelona in their 122 years of existence.