Move over Ronaldo, Lionel Messi has another goal scoring record this week after his second hat trick in three days gave him his 72nd, 73rd and 74th Champions League goals. Messi and FC Barcelona took on Group F opponent APOEL on Tuesday and with Ronaldo right behind him at 70 goals and facing a weak opponent in FC Basel on Wednesday, he knew he needed to score today in order to be the first to break the record.
Score he did, as the Argentine striker had three goals in the match, a 4-0 victory over APOEL. Messi entered the game tied with Raul Gonzalez, with 71 Champions League goals and broke the record early after slipping the ball past APOEL’s goalkeeper Urko Pardo’s diving arms in the 38th minute. His second goal came in the 58th minute thanks to a great assist from Dani Alves. Alves sent a through ball into the box that Messi was able to get his right foot on and bury into the bottom left corner of the net. His third and final goal came in the 87th minute as he blasted a shot from just inside the six yard box.
The 27-year old Messi obliterated Raul’s record in nearly a third less games than the Real Madrid legend. It took Raul 142 games to score 71 goals, while Messi now has 74 in only 90 games. Cristiano Ronaldo is hot on his tail however, as the 29-year-old soon to be back-to-back Ballon d’Or winner has 70 UCL goals and is sure to get more tomorrow against FC Basel.
In addition to the Champions League record, Messi made it a week of extraordinary accomplishments as he also surpassed Telmo Zarra’s La Liga goals record of 251 by scoring a hat trick on Saturday. Needless to say, Messi is on a goal scoring tear as of late and his late push might help him in the Ballon d’Or voting next month.
Undoubtedly, Messi is the greatest player of his generation and he continues to prove that year after year on the pitch. While naysayers continue to tout Ronaldo as the greatest of all time, Messi continues to break records and make his teammates better. Speaking of which, Luis Suarez opened up his campaign with FC Barcelona with his first goal in the 27th minute.
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