Lionel Messi netted the 400th and 401st goals of his incredible career in Barcelona’s 6-0 demolition of Granada at the Nou Camp and closed to within 3 of Telmo Zarra’s all-time La Liga scoring record. The impressive start to life under Luis Enrique continued in thrilling fashion on Saturday afternoon with Neymar netting a hat-trick and Ivan Rakitic adding a sixth.
The performances of Lionel Messi have been praised in recent weeks due to the creativity that the four-time Ballon D’or winner has exhibited, rather than his goalscoring prowess, but today the 27-year-old displayed both talents in equal measure.
Neymar gave Barcelona the lead midway through the first half after he pounced on a wayward pass but from then on it was yet another breathtaking example of Barce’s attacking talents.
Messi crossed for Rakitic to head in the second and then the Argentina captain’s defence splitting pass created the opportunity for Neymar to fire in his second of the game and give Barcelona a three-goal lead at the break.
On the hour mark, Messi got his name on the score sheet with a close range header and minutes later it was his cut-back that found Neymar and allowed the Brazilian to complete his hat-trick.
Messi later added a sixth and final goal and his second of the day to move to 401 career goals and to 248 La Liga goals. Messi is now just 3 behind the record of 251 set by Atlético Bilbao’s, Telmo Zarra between 1940 and 1955 and while this is now just a matter of time, one wonders just how many goals Messi could score in his career?
At 27, Messi still has plenty of years ahead of him and shows no signs of slowing up so plenty more records could yet tumble.
golazo argentino 