Lionel MESSI equals goals record and puts Barcelona into last 16

The Barcelona manager Luis Enrique described Leo Messi as “the best player I have seen in my whole life” after he equalled Raul as the all-time leading scorer in the European Cup with two goals against Ajax that saw FC Barcelona progress to the knockout phase of the Champions League. Luis Suárez returned to his former home and said that while he would feel like “letting go” if he scored his first goal for Barcelona he would not celebrate. Messi had no such dilemma. He scored his 70th and 71st goals in this competition alone.

Ultimately, this was a comfortable victory and a necessary one for a team under pressure after losing two in a row. It had not always seemed that way as Ajaxthreatened in the first half, but the second was a different story. It could have been an even bigger story too: Suárez missed a wonderful chance to get his first goal and there were moments when it looked like Messi might get his third of the night and claim the record outright.

Barcelona took the lead in the 36th minute. Messi’s 20-yard free-kick had been pushed away by Jasper Cillessen but reaching the loose ball first Jordi Alba crossed and when the clearance fell to Dani Alves, he looped it back into the area, sending it bouncing into the air. Cillessen came for it, a long way from his line, and missed it. Barcelona’s Marc Bartra got to it before him and hooked it roughly towards the six-yard box, where Messi’s header squeezed over the line.

It was Messi’s 70th goal in the European Cup, putting him level with Cristiano Ronaldo. The record will surely alternate between the pair of them for some time to come.

If there was something about the goal that was a little unconvincing there was something about Barcelona that was too. The genesis of it had been an Ajax attack and they had been growing in frequency and intensity. As Messi had lined up to take the free-kick, won from a break away while Anwar El Ghazi lay on the floor in the opposite area, the shot count read Ajax 6 Barcelona 2. The ball was Ajax’s too; Barcelona had less than half of the possession, enjoying just 48%. “We made a game of it in the first half,” Frank de Boer, the Ajax coach, said later. “It’s a shame we weren’t rewarded for our good play.”