Magical Messi: 3 goals in 17 minutes and 2 assists in one night

31-year-old Barcelona captain Lionel Messi made the difference between Barcelona and mediocrity in a 5-0 victory over Levante on Sunday night. Barcelona played in an unusual 3-5-2 formation, but that did not stop Messi from ... being Messi. The mercurial Argentine who was at his sumptuous best scoring three goals in 17 minutes, providing two assists, and being instrumental in every goal Barcelona scored. 35 minutes into the game, Messi duped three Levante players into tailing him pointlessly across the penalty box, then lazered a pass for Luis Suarez who scored Barcelona's first goal of the night.

Eight minutes later, Messi marked his name on the scoresheet, scoring a sublime goal with his right foot. He ran from the halfway line, and beat the Valencia goalkeeper Oier Olazabal one-on-one to to net the pass from Sergio Busquets. Two minutes after half-time, Messi gave Barcelona a 3-0 lead with a sublime low left-footed shot into the net. An incredible team construct led to Messi's third goal for the night. Suarez nutmegged Levante defender Erick Cabaco, dribbled into the box and made a graceful pass across goal to Arturo Vidal. Messi tapped in the first-time cross from Arturo Vidal. Messi provided

Barcelona their fifth goal with an assist to Gerard Pique. Pique scored the fifth and last goal of the match. Barcelona sits atop the La Liga table with this win.

Having scored a hat-trick tonight, Messi is now the top scorer in Europe's big five leagues, with a tally of 14 goals in La Liga. Barcelona's victory over Levante was Messi's 323rd La Liga victory, 1 victory more than Xavi's 322 wins. This means Messi is now the player with the highest number of victories in La Liga. What's more, Messi is the first player to reach double figures for both goals and assists in the top five European leagues this season. He has scored 14 goals and made 10 assists so far. Messi has scored 50 goals or more in eight of the last nine calendar years (club and international strikes). The ever-mesmerizing Messi has now scored 43 hat-tricks for Barcelona.

Comments

Princess Qajar - The Revolutionary Persian Princess

Zahra Khanom Tadj es-Saltaneh commonly referred to as Princess Qajar was a princess and memoirist of the Qajar Dynasty. Princess Tadj was one of the best known daughters of the Persian king, Naser al-Din Shah Qajar who ruled Persia from 1848 to May 1896. The Persian princess was born on February 4, 1883 and died on January 25, 1936, in Tehran, at the age of 52. Princess Qajar revolutionized beauty standards with her full look and ragged unibrow, and her unmistakably evident mustache. She was a true epitome of beauty at her time. Princess Qajar was declared a symbol of beauty in Persia and was coveted by many men. Thousands of men wanted to marry her, 13 of whom committed suicide upon being rejected by the princess. Princess Qajar eventually married Amir Hussein Khan Shoja'-al Saltaneh and had they had four children - two boys and two girls. They later got divorced in 1907 after enduring an unloving arranged marriage - she married Khan when she was 13. The princess argued f

The Lehman Brothers Scandal (2008)

Company Background : Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a firm specialized in the provision of global financial services. It was founded in Montgomery, Alabama, in the United States of America. The company had headquarters in New York City, New York, in the U.S. It ceased operations in 2008. The founders were: Henry Lehman, Emmanuel Lehman and Mayer Lehman. What Happened? Lehman Brothers hid over $50 billion in loans disguised as sales. They allegedly sold toxic assets [1] to Cayman Island Banks with the understanding that they would eventually be rebought. How they were caught : Their bankruptcy led to the discovery of the fraud. They filed for bankruptcy in 2008, which is the largest bankruptcy ever recorded. Their case was larger than that of Enron, Washington Mutual, WorldCom and GM combined. On September 15, 2008, Lehman brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (Montgomery, n.d.) . Their bankruptcy filing came in as a blow to the financial industry as i

The finger-cutting tradition of Indonesia's Dani tribe

The death of a loved one is always an extremely painful thing to bear, and people of different cultures grieve in diverse ways, some more unique than others. A typically unique way of grieving is that of the Dani (an Indonesian tribe). Finger-cutting is a fundamental part of grieving for women of the Dani tribe, and pertains to their women only. According to The Globe and Mail, an estimated 250,000 Dani tribe members live in a town named Wamena, in the extremely remote central highland area of Papua Province. Wamena is only accessible by plane. Upon the death of a loved one, the top joint of one of a woman's fingers would be amputated, and smear ashes and clay across their faces. Prior to amputation, a string would be firmly tied to the upper half of the woman's finger for 30 minutes, to cause numbness. This was to reduce the pain from amputating the tip. In most cases, the responsibility of cutting off the top joint of the finger is assigned to one of the woman's

Raissa's Blog - Best of Sports, Culture, and Entertainment

Search This Blog