Rakitic talked about Barca and Messi in an interview for Croatian daily newspaper "Vecernji list":
Journalist: "You were the champion of Europe, in maybe the best Barca's team ever. How it is to play with trio Messi-Neymar-Suarez?"
Rakitic: "Those three are football wizzards. Each of them is unique in it's own way. I am not saying that only because I play in Barcelona."
Journalist: "But one of them is just one of a kind, isn't it? And his absence was clearly visible in the last few weeks..."
Rakitic: "Yes. Leo is one and only and there will never again be a player like him. He is just the best...
When we play, and whenever a team gets into troubles, Messi just magically steps in, he does something out of nowhere, and he resolves the match and all the problems by himself.
Now, without him, every one of us needs to give 120% to somehow compensate Messi's absence, but it is impossible to (fully) compensate it, no matter what we do.
We have a lot of matches, time goes fast and we have to keep close to Real Madrid.
It will be very hard to catch them later if they run away now..."