LIONEL MESSI SCORED a landmark 100th goal in European competition, netting for Barcelona against Olympiacos in the Champions League last night to join Cristiano Ronaldo in an exclusive club.
The Argentina star went into the match having netted 96 in the Champions League and three in the Uefa Super Cup, and he brought up his continental century with a free-kick at Camp Nou.
Dimitris Nikolaou, whose own-goal let Barca open the scoring, scythed Messi down on the edge of the area and Olympiacos goalkeeper Silvio Proto could not prevent him making it 2-0, parrying a curling effort into the roof of the net.
Lucas Digne soon made it three, on the end of a Messi assist, with Ernesto Valverde’s men coasting despite Gerard Pique’s red card shortly before half-time.
Messi scored the first of his 100 in November 2005 in a 5-0 hammering of Olympiacos’ great rivals Panathinaikos, whom he has since gone on to score another three times against.
Arsenal remain his favourite prey, however, with Messi scoring nine times against Arsene Wenger’s men down the years, one more than both Celtic and AC Milan.
His tally against Arsenal is tied with Ronaldo’s respective haul against Bayern Munich in Europe, making them joint record-holders for goals against a single team.
Messi has, of course, scored all 97 of his Champions League goals for Barcelona, taking him five clear of Ronaldo as the player with the most goals for the same club in the competition.
Here are just some of the records he now holds at club level:
- Most Champions League hat-tricks (shared with Cristiano Ronaldo): 7
- Most Champions League group stage goals: 60
- Most Champions League round of 16 goals: 21
- Most Fifa Ballon d’Or awards: 5
- Most La Liga goals: 360
- Most La Liga goals in a single season: 50 (2011/12)
- Most goals in a calendar year: 79 in 2012 (91 including goals for Argentina)
Players with most goals in Uefa competitions
113 – Cristiano Ronaldo* (151 games)
100 – Lionel Messi* (122)
76 – Raúl González (158)
70 – Filippo Inzaghi (114)
67 – Andriy Shevchenko (142)
62 – Ruud van Nistelrooy (92)
61 – Gerd Müller (69)
59 – Thierry Henry (140)
59 – Henrik Larsson (108)
56 – Zlatan Ibrahimović* (139)
54 – Eusébio (70)
53 – Alessandro Del Piero (129)
51 – Karim Benzema* (99)
50 – Sergio Agüero* (86)
50 – Didier Drogba (102)
50 – Klaas-Jan Huntelaar* (87)
*still playing
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