Barcelona beat Athletic Club, Messi scores 650th goal for Barca
Lionel Messi scored his 650th goal for Barcelona as they clinched a 2-1 victory over Athletic Bilbao in La Liga on Sunday. Barca successfully avenged their defeat in the Spanish Super Cup final. After recording a fifth straight La Liga win, the Ronald Koeman-managed side moved above Real Madrid at number two on the standings. Here are the records broken.
Messi scored the opener for Barcelona with a stunning free kick in the 20th minute. This turned out to be his 650th goal for Barca across all competitions. In the second half, Athletic somehow managed to level things through an own-goal by Jordi Alba. Eventually, Antoine Griezmann restored the lead, knocking home a cross from defender Oscar Mingueza.
In the game against Athletic, Messi scored his 650th goal for Barcelona across all competitions. He has registered 456 of them in La Liga, with 49 being direct free-kick goals (38 in league). In December 2020, the Argentine legend broke Pele's all-time record for goals scored for a single club by netting his 644th career goal for Barcelona.
Messi has scored 21 free-kick goals in the last five seasons, most during the period in Europe's top five leagues. This is thirteen more than Aleksandar Kolarov and James Ward-Prowse (eight each). Others on the tally are Paulo Dybala and Iago Aspas (seven each).
Messi's split-up of 650 goals for Barcelona: 456 in La Liga, 118 in the Champions League, 54 in Copa del Rey, 14 in the Supercopa, 5 in the Club World Cup, 3 in the UEFA Super Cup.
At 18 years and 67 days, Barca mid-fielder Pedri Gonzalez has become the youngest player to make 12+ recoveries in a single La Liga game since 2007/08. Meanwhile, Griezmann has now scored 11 goals against Athletic Club in all competitions (5 for Atletico Madrid, 3 for Barcelona, 3 for Real Sociedad), more than against any other opponent in his club senior career.
