Messi breaks 300-goal barrier

Posted on by

Lionel Messi smashed through the 300-goal mark with a brace as Barcelona crushed Rayo Vallecano 5-0 in Madrid.

Messi’s goals were the 300th and 301st of his career, a total made up of 270 for Barcelona and 31 for Argentina in only 419 matches. They also took him to 13 in the league this season and 73 in all competitions in 2012 (club and country).

Here are some stats on Messi’s new landmark, published by @InfostradaLive:

• Messi’s 301 goals per weekday: Sat (109), Sun (70), Wed (70), Tue (40), Fri (7), Mon (4), Thu (1)

• Breakdown of Messi’s 300 goals: 246 left foot – 40 right foot – 12 headers – 1 body – 1 hand

 

Messi reaches 30 goals for Argentina

Posted on by

Lionel Messi kept Argentina top of the World Cup qualifiers in South America with a masterful two-goal performance in their 3-0 home victory over Uruguay on Friday.

He took his tally for the Argentine national team to 30 goals in 78 matches. Check out a compilation of all his Argentina goals here:

Messi: 14 braces in Champions League

Posted on by

Barcelona recorded their first win of the new Champions League campaign last night with a 3-2 win over Spartak Moskva, who had been 1-2 up with half an hour to play. Lionel Messi came to the rescue with two goals to secure three points for the Catalan side.

Here are some of the Messi facts after the victory over the Russian side:

• Messi scored his 52nd and 53rd Champions League-goal for Barcelona, in 69 matches.

• Messi has now scored at least 2 goals in a Champions League match for the 14th time and has equalled the CL record held by Raúl.

• Messi took his tally for Barcelona in this season to 10 goals in 7 official matches. Including his 2 goals in 3 matches for Argentina he has already scored 12 times this season.

• Messi scored his winning goal against Spartak with a header, his 11th headed goal for Barcelona (out of 263).

• Thanks to the goals of Messi Barcelona remain unbeaten in 17 consecutive CL games in Camp Nou (W14 D3). Last defeat: 20 Oct 2009 (Rubin Kazan, 1-2).

Fifth brace for Messi as a substitute

Posted on by

Barcelona continued their great start to the league season with a fourth consecutive victory, beating Getafe 1-4 on Saturday. Messi broke his own goal scoring record for a calendar year by registering his 60th and 61st goal of 2012.

Here are some of the Messi facts after Barça’s 1-4 victory over Getafe:

• For the first time after 36 consecutive starts for Barcelona, Messi started an official match as a substitute.

• When Messi came into action from the bench, he played his 54th match as a substitute for Barcelona (out of 335 official matches in total).

• For the 5th time in his Barcelona career Messi scored twice as a substitute. He also scored 2 goals as a sub against Real Mallorca (2006, 0-3), Shakhtar Donetsk (2008, 1-2), Racing Santander (2009, 1-2) & Osasuna (2012, 4-0).

• Messi took his tally for Barcelona this season to 8 goals in 6 official matches. Including his 3 international games for Argentina this season, Messi is already in double digits: 10 goals.

• Messi scored his 174th and 175th goal for Barcelona in La Liga. He needed 218 matches to reach that mark.

Messi: 11 out of 11 under Sabella

Posted on by

Lionel Messi was in fine form again as Argentina posted their 6th consecutive victory, brushing Paraguay aside 3-1 to take the lead in South America’s World Cup Qualifiers on Friday.

Messi converted a free kick to score Argentina’s third goal of the match. He has now scored in 6 consecutive matches for his country, producing a total of 10 goals.

Messi took his tally for Argentina to 28 goals in 72 matches. Only Gabriel Batistuta (54), Hernán Crespo (35) and Diego Armando Maradona (34) have scored more goals for La Albiceleste.

Under current national team coach Alejandro Sabella, Messi has now registered 11 goals in as many matches. Under his previous coach with Argentina, Sergio Batista, Messi scored only 4 in 11 matches.

After the Paraguay games, Messi’s record for both Barcelona and Argentina in this season reads 7 official matches and 8 goals.