Lionel Messi breaks 40-year-old goal record
The Argentina star Lionel Messi sets a new record of most goals in a calendar year as he netted twice to lead Barcelona get a 2-1 victory over Betis at Estadio Benito Villamarin in their Liga match on Sunday.
The 25-year-old embossed his name in football history by notching his 85th and 86th goals for Argentina and Barcelna in 2012, surpassing the Gerd Muller’s record of 85 goals that was set about forty years ago. Lionel Messi also outshined Cesar Rodriguez with his 192nd Liga goal.
Messi scored his 83rd and 84th goals of this season on Saturday in Barcelona’s 5-1 success against Athletic Bilbao in a La Liga match.
Lionel Messi – who was able to get a place in the starting lineup after recovering from knee injury that he got in the final minutes of Barcelona’s scoreless draw against Benfica – gave Barcelona two goals lead within the opening 25 minutes, the strong-willed home side pulled a goal back just before the break through Ruben Castro but couldn’t find an equalizer despite creating a number of opportunities in the second half.
The players of both sides came into the ground with aggressive mood, it was Betis who fired an early warning shot just after two minutes of opening faceoff as Joel Campbell picked out cross from Saalva Sevilla inside the area, but fired his header too close to Victor Valdes.
Barca wasted their first opportunity in the 10th minute but they didn’t break stride and managed to get one-goal lead with quarter hour mark as Messi exceeded multiple defenders to send the ball into the bottom corner and equalized the 85 goals record of Muller.
The lead was doubled in the historic moments when Lionel Messi – who is the qualifier for “FIFA’s world player of the year” award along with his teammate Andres Iniesta and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo – grabbed his 86th goal of the year to break 40-year-old record.
Betis cut Barcelona’s lead shortly before halftime as Castro slotted a calm shot to beat Valdes. The home side struggled hard in the search of equalizer after restart and created a number of opportunities but couldn’t avail any of them.