FCBARCELONA.CAT

21.04.2007 11:00

Xavi beats personal record

Xavi Hernández broke his own personal record when he scored in the Copa del Rey victory against Getafe in midweek as this season is the first in which he has scored six goals for the Barça first team.

The Terrassa-born playmaker reached this milestone as he opened the scoring on Wednesday evening against Bernd Schuster's side in Camp Nou with a superbly taken strike. After being found in the area by Lionel Messi, Xavi span on the ball to lose his markers before clipping the ball inside the far post. That was his sixth goal of the campaign and capped a fine display.

Five times before

Since marking his debut in the 1998-99 season, Xavi has never before surpassed the five-goal mark in official games during one season. It was during Frank Rijkaard's first season in charge that he scored five times, with four of them coming in the league. The goal from the season that will be most fondly remembered came in Bernabéu and gave Barça victory over Real Madrid. Another fine effort came in the second round of the UEFA Cup against Greek outfit Panionios.

Debut effort

Xavi made his first-team debut in 1998 when he appeared in the Spanish Super Cup Final against Mallorca and capped a dream debut with a goal.

It was Louis Van Gaal that called him up from the club's B side and the midfielder showed that it had been a wise decision as he scored again, this time hitting the only goal of the game against Valladolid. That season, the Blaugrana went on to win the league with an 11-point advantage over Real Madrid.

Six goals, three competitions

To his term, Xavi has scored in the league, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup. The 27-year-old scored against Espanyol in the Super Cup before going onto find the net against Recreativo, Getafe and Athletic Bilbao in the league and then, this week, he registered his second goal of the Copa del Rey, having already scored in the last round against Real Zaragoza.