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Messi joins the greats with European record
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BARCELONA’S Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick to shatter the Champions League goalscoring record by taking his tally in the competition to 74 in a 4-0 win over APOEL on Tuesday.
The previous record of 71 had been set by former Real Madrid and Schalke 04 striker Raul over the course of 142 matches.
Raul’s record fell when Messi struck his first in the 38th minute to give Barcelona a 2-0 lead after Luis Suarez had opened the scoring. It was Messi’s 91st match in Europe’s top club competition.
Barcelona’s Brazilian midfielder Rafihna unleashed a powerful shot from some 20 meters out. Despite being closely marked, Messi was able to get a foot to the ball and re-direct it past the helpless APOEL goalkeeper Urko Pardo.
Messi’s teammates swarmed around him to congratulate the Argentina star on his achievement. He struck again in the 58th when a defense-splitting pass from Dani Alves put him through and Messi’s chip past Pardo bounced into the net off the post.
Messi rounded off the scoring in the 87th minute of the Group F match, completing his 28th Barcelona hat-trick and his fifth in the Champions League.
Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored 70 goals in the Champions League from its group stages onwards, gets his chance to catch up with Messi’s record when the defending champion faces Basel away.
Messi’s latest feat came three days after he became the Spanish league’s all-time scorer by netting a hat-trick to give him 253 goals in the domestic competition, two more than former Athletic Bilbao great Telmo Zarra scored from 1940-55.
“He is a unique and unrepeatable player,” gushed current Barca boss Luis Enrique.
However, the highest praise was lavished by the architect of much of what Messi has achieved at the Catalan club, Pep Guardiola, who turned a diminutive young winger into a goalscoring machine from the false nine role which has revolutionized the game the world over.
“He has broken a record that everyone thought was unbreakable, a figure which was unreachable — and one which has stood for 60 years,” said the Bayern Munich boss.
“It will take another 600 years before his record is broken.”
The irony is his Champions League record may not last long. Ronaldo is himself galloping through the list of all-time scorers in Spain at an alarming rate with his double against Eibar on Saturday moving him up to ninth thanks to an unbelievable strike rate of 197 in 176 La Liga games since swapping Manchester for Madrid five years ago.
The two are expected to accompany a German World Cup winner when the three candidates to win this year’s Ballon d’Or are announced on Monday, having shared domination of the prize over the past six years.
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