Lionel Messi Celebrates After Scoring His
72nd Career Champions League Goal Against
APOEL on Tuesday. Image: Getty.
Lionel Messi grabbed a hat-trick in
Barcelona’s 4-0 win at APOEL Nicosia to
become the all-time record goals scorer in
the Uefa Champions League with 74 goals
on Tuesday.
Prior to the historical night, the Argentina
skipper needed a goal to scale former Real
Madrid striker Raul Gonzalez’s record, but
came up with his 72nd, 73rd and 74th goals
in Europe all in one memorable night in
Cyprus.
This record could change hands in
subsequent games this season- bearing that
Real forward Cristiano Ronaldo is four goals
shy of the new benchmark- but Messi has
reached the landmark in 91 games, 51
matches better than Raul, who scored 71
goals for both Los Merengues and Schalke.
Messi, who wore the captain armband on the
night, converted the Catalans’ second goal of
the evening from close range seven minutes
after the half-hour mark, following Luis
Suarez’s opener- the Uruguayan’s first for
the club he joined last summer.
He then latched on to a Dani Alves through
pass and masterfully dinked the ball beyond
goalkeeper Urko Pardo in the 58th minute.
He finished the Group F contest with a
flourish three minutes to the dead, when he
simply tapped in Pedro’s cut-back.
At just 27 years of age, the four-time Fifa
Ballon d’Or winner now holds both scoring
records in the Champions League and the
Spanish League, having taken down Telmo
Zarra’s record of 251 La Liga goals record at
the weekend with a hat-trick in a 5-1
thrashing of Sevilla to improve to 253 goals
on domestic front.
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