Barca & Messi: More than just Sociedad’s record

Fresh off an injury that kept Messi sidelined during the International football week, the little magician is back to his vintage self again, despite reports from the Barcelona medical team that he is not playing at 100% fitness just yet.

Barcelona played Leganes in the week 31 round of fixtures and Messi was spectacular as expected.

As usual, it was champagne football, with Leganes giving as much as they took – well, nearly as much.

Even as Ivan Rakitic, Philippe Cuotinho, Sergio Roberto and the rest of the Blaugrana put up five-star performances, the little god from Argentina made all the difference, weighing in with a hat-trick – with goals coming in the 27^th, 32^nd and 87^th minute. This puts his tally of hat-tricks at 29 in the league making him 2^nd place to his rival and Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo who has 34 in the league. But that was only one of the records that came tumbling yesterday. Messi’s goals also put him at par with Liverpool’s Mo Sallah (29), as the highest haul so far in Europe’s top five leagues this season.

The win means Barca have taken a major leap in the bid to dethrone Real Madrid for the title this season. But most importantly Barcelona are on track to finish the season unbeaten, an accolade that has been achieved by teams like AC Milan, Arsenal, Juventus and a few others. With just seven games left to play, they have won 24 games, drawn 7 games and haven’t lost any games.

Also with this win in week 31, Barcelona has gone on to equal the longest unbeaten run in La Liga history (38 games), equaling the record set by Real Socieded between 1979 and 1980.

The toughest match of the seven remaining games is an El Classico game against bitter rivals Real Madrid on the 6^th of May 2017 at the Camp Nou. Real Madrid, whose title hopes have since vanished, will look to beat Barcelona by any means necessary to kill their hopes of going unbeaten for the whole season.

Ronaldo, especially, would be motivated as completion of this feat will give Messi a slight edge in the football world and the never-ending argument of who the better player between the two is.