Valdes sets record as Messi nets 200th goal
Reuters - Tuesday 01 November 2011, 22:45
A rampant Lionel Messi scored his
200th goal for Barcelona when he netted a penalty in the 24th
minute of Tuesday's Champions League match at Viktoria Plzen
before completing a second consecutive hat-trick.
The referee pointed to the spot after the 24-year-old
Argentine World Player of the Year was felled by defender Marian
Cisovsky and he struck the ball into the net to the goalkeeper's
right to become only the second Barca player to reach the mark.
Messi, top scorer in Europe's elite club competition the
past three seasons, then added a second and third in stoppage-time in each half to complete a 14th career hat-trick on what
was his 286th appearance according to Infostrada.
He also scored three in Saturday's 5-0 La Liga win at home
to Real Mallorca and Tuesday's goals helped put holders Barca
through to the Champions League last 16 with two games to spare.
"I am happy but more than anything for the result," Messi
said in a pitchside interview with Spanish television, adding
that he was not thinking about catching the Catalan club's
record marksman Cesar Rodriguez, who scored 235.
"It's not my goal, far from it. The important thing was to
win tonight and get through to the last 16.
"My aim is simply to keep going in the same way, to keep
helping the team with my goals and together we will achieve some
great things."
CLUB BEST
Messi took second spot on the list of Barcelona's record
goal scorers from Hungarian Ladislau Kubala last month and is
fast closing in on Cesar, who has held the record since the
1950s.
Barca goalkeeper Victor Valdes also wrote his name into the
record books on Tuesday when he set a new club best for minutes
unbeaten.
The 29-year-old has not conceded a goal in 877 minutes,
beating a mark of 824 set in the 1972/73 season by Miguel Reina,
father of Liverpool keeper and Valdes's Spain team mate Pepe
Reina.
It is also the first time Barca have gone nine games without
conceding. The last team to score against them were Valencia in
La Liga on September 21.