On Saturday, we saw the 12th week of the La Liga kick off and we saw Barcelona take on Ivan Rakitic’s former team, Sevilla in which we saw a strong Barcelona team play well. Since the clasico, it seemed like Real Madrid had destroyed the Catalan’s hearts and they struggled to get goals and win against Ajax, Almeria and Luis Enrique’s former team, Celta Vigo. But today it was a different story for Barcelona and especially the Argentinean player, Lionel Messi. We saw Messi score his 20th hat-trick and also enter the all time La Liga’s scorer record book. Messi passed Telmo Zarra’s record of 251 goals with his hat-trick today and with his hat-trick now has 253 goals in his 10 years of being in FC Barcelona. Only at the age of 26, Messi still has time to make that record even bigger and give competition not only to other players, but to his arch rival, Cristiano Ronaldo who has 197 goals in La Liga right now. We also saw Rakitic score against his former team with a beautiful header and Neymar add to his tally as well with a beautiful header as well.
As the first half kicked off, we saw the Catalans take control of the game since the minute the ball rolled. But it wasn’t until the 21st minute that we saw Messi put Barcelona in the scoreboard but also tie Zarra’s all time record. With a free kick given to the Catalans, it was Messi who decided to take the free kick and put it in nicely in the top left corner of Sevilla goalkeeper’s net. The ball was curved nicely and Messi gave the ball enough power to go just over the defense wall and tie the record.
The rest of the first half, was quiet with Suarez having a couple of chances and trying to get into the goal scoring sheet for Barcelona since his debut in the Clasico.
It wasn’t until the second half that we saw Sevilla get on the scoreboard in the 46th but it wasn’t a player from Sevilla that scored, but Barca’s own defender, Jordi Alba. Midfielder Vitolo took on Pique on the left side of the field and got a soft cross heading to Midfielder Denis Suarez but instead the ball found Jordi Alba and it was bad luck for him as it went pass goalkeeper Claudio Bravo.
Not two minutes later, it was Barca that was able to take the lead with a free kick give to the Catalans. As Beto was giving commands to his teammates, Messi took the free kick and was able to find Neymar, who headed the ball and got it pass goalkeeper Beto on the bottom right corner of the net.
In the 64th minute, Barca once again got themselves on the scoreboard to make it a 3-1 lead over Sevilla. Pique was able to find Suarez on the right hand side of the field and Suarez took the ball into the box, took his time to find the perfect moment to cross the ball and when he did, Rakitic was able to find the ball in the air and get it pass his former teammate, Beto. Beto tried his best to make sure the ball wouldn’t cross, but it was too late since the ball had already crossed the goal line.
In the 73rd minute, this is when we saw Messi break the record for most goals of the La Liga. Messi went against two defenders while he had the help of Neymar on the left hand side and Suarez in the right hand side of the field. Messi was able to find time to give the ball to Neymar, where the ball went through both defenders; Neymar found time to make sure either Suarez or Messi would get to the ball. As we saw the play being finished, we thought that Suarez would finally get into the score sheet but it was Messi who got to the ball first and slid to get the ball behind the net to break the record of 251 goals in La Liga. Messi got up, thanked Neymar and half the team came to celebrate with him as they lifted him up and was able to see the joy in Messi’s face as he celebrated his record.
In the 78th minute, Sergio Busquets was able to find Messi in the right hand side in which we saw Messi take on two defenders, pass it to Neymar who gave the ball back to Messi and La Pulga was able to get the ball pass 3 defenders plus the goalkeeper to add to his record and add to his hat-trick tally of 20 hat-tricks in his career of all time.
With this we saw the Catalans take a 5-1 lead and finish the game with this amazing game. Barcelona looked like a different team today in the field and with the help of his teammates; Messi added more to his career book and is making it more difficult for people to break his all time records. With this win, this also makes Barcelona second in the Liga table with 1 point behind Real Madrid. Fans hope that these ways continue for the Catalans and hoping to give Real Madrid competition throughout this season.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
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