FCBARCELONA.CAT

06.04.2010 23:23

Record Breaker

Roger Bogunyà

Leo Messi just keeps on breaking records. This Tuesday’s 19-minute hat trick and the late fourth goal rounded off a superb performance. Here are just some of the great player’s record breaking achievements:

- First four goal haul: Tuesday was the first time Messi had bagged four goals in a single game for the club - mind you, before that he had scored 5 hat tricks and 18 times scored twice in a game.

- Leading scorer in the Champions League: after those four goals, Leo is now the competition’s leading scorer this season - as he is in Spain where he’s chalked up 26 league goals so far.

- First to four: Messi is the first player in this season’s competition to score four goals in one game.

- One of six: Messi is the sixth player in the competition’s history to bag four in a game, following on from Van Basten (AC Milan), Simone Inzaghi (Lazio), Prso (Mònaco), Van Nistelroy (M. United) and Shevchenko (AC Milan) and becoming the first Barca player to do so.

- One of nine: only eight other players have scored a first half hat trick in the Champions League and Messi is the first to score three in the first 45 minutes of a game this season.

- Gunners suffer most: with Tuesday’s four goals, Arsenal became the team Messi has scored most goals against in Europe – Seville and Atletico Madrid, who he’s scored 7 against, are his favourite victims in Spain.

- Messi equals Rivaldo: With 25 goals in the Champions League, Messi has drawn level with the club’s leading scorer in the competition – Rivaldo.

- Record breaking season: Messi has now scored 39 goals this season – one more than he managed all last season – and he has done that in just 42 games, eight less than he figured in last season.

- 67 goals at home: Of the 119 goals Messi has scored for the club, 67 have been at home, with 52 on the road.