What a night it was for football lovers especially Messi’s faithfuls on Wednesday 14th of March as Barcelona edged Chelsea to a 3 – 0 victory, which means Barcelona have now progressed to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.
Messi’s second goal, which was scored midway into the second half, by the way, heralded a century of goals.
This means Messi, the Argentine playmaker and Barcelona superstar, has scored a total of 100 goals in 123 Champions League games. That’s 14 fewer games than the 137 games it took Ronaldo his Real Madrid counterpart to achieve the same feat.
Here are some interesting facts you should know about Lionel Messi’s centenary goal.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Messi’s centenary goal is coming in his first appearance after celebrating the birth of his third son, Ciro.
- Messi has scored a record 24 goals in the round of 16, four more than Ronaldo.
- Messi’s first UEFA Champions League goal was against Olympiacos. He has since scored plenty of goals but not against Chelsea — until yesterday (sorry Chelsea fans, I feel you; but it’s just that you can’t stop Messi from breaking the jinx and setting new records!).
- Courtesy of Messi’s brace and centenary goal, Barcelona are now through to the quarter-finals UEFA Champions League for a record 11th successive season and 15th in all.
- Messi is the fastest player to score 100 goals in UEFA Champions League.
- His first goal, which he scored in only 128 seconds, was his fastest for both club and country
- 100 UEFA goals — a milestone achieved with 1758 fewer minutes and 266 fewer shots (when compared with Ronaldo’s centenary record!).
Christiano Ronaldo and Messi are the only two players ever who have scored 100 goals in the UEFA Champions League.
Messi’s centenary goal feat came at the right time as it helped pushed Barcelona into the quarterfinals, to level them on par with Real Madrid for who becomes 2017/2018 UEFA Champions League winner.
Therefore, with Barcelona leading the table in the Spanish La Liga (they’re in a pole position to win the league as it stands) and Messi’s contribution so far, plus a spot in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, it can be arguably opined that Messi would at least make top three nominees for the 2017 world best player.