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Valencia shocked their hosts, Barcelona, during Saturday's La Liga fixture. Valencia took a two-goal lead before half-time against La Liga leaders Barcelona. A Kevin Gameiro goal and a Dani Parejo penalty saw Valencia dominate the first twenty minutes of the game. Lionel Messi scored for a ninth consecutive match, a brace this time, which earned Barcelona a 2-2 draw against Valencia. Messi reduced Valencia's lead with a brilliant equalizer at the 26th minute, and got Barcelona level at the 64th minute.  Jordi Alba's presence was greatly missed in the first half of the game - Barcelona are much better at attacking when they have Alba as an outlet on the left flank. The face of the game completely changed once he stepped in, in the second half.  50 - Lionel Messi is the third player in @LaLigaEN history to score 50 penalty goals, after Cristiano Ronaldo (61) and Hugo Sanchez (56). Milestone. pic.twitter.com/7oDJL2BhFT — OptaJose (@OptaJose) February 2, 2019

Barcelona faced Girona at Estadi Montilivi on Sunday in a La Liga clash. Barcelona was able to restore their five point lead atop the La Liga table with goals from Nelson Semedo and Lionel Messi. Nelson Semedo gave Barcelona an early lead inside the opening 10 minutes in the game - his first goal for Barcelona, and Messi scored Barcelona's second goal - after being set up by Jordi Alba - twenty minutes into stoppage. Girona''s Cristhian Stuani made three concrete attempts to equalize but was denied by Marc-Andre ter Stergen all attempts. Things got tougher for Girona after Bernardo Espinosa was sent off for a second booking, at the 51st minute. Philippe Coutinho still put up a dull show, made a number of misplaced passes, and looked low on confidence. He also wasted two scoring opportunities, one being from Messi in the first half, and another in stoppage time. Barcelona are now at 49 points after 21 games, 5 points ahead of nearest challengers Atletico Madrid. Lion

Barcelona started the match against Leganes with Messi and other key players like Rakitic and Vidal on the bench. Ousmane Dembele was instrumental for Barcelona in the first half, brilliantly filling Lionel Messi's void. He diligently tormented the Leganes defense before netting Barcelona's first goal at the 32nd minute. His brilliant evening was brought to a premature end with an ankle injury after an awkward fall early in the second half. Ernesto Valverde's decision to rest Messi almost backfired in the second half with Leganes' revival. Barely 30 minutes after his entry in the second half, a magical Lionel Messi changed Barcelona's fate from an eminent defeat to Leganes to victory. Barcelona's 1-0 lead was overturned in the early minutes of the second half with a goal from Leganes' Martin Braithwaite. Messi's impact was felt barely seven minutes after his entry.  At the 71st minute, the Barcelona talisman created a fine assist for Luis

Lionel Messi's strike in Barcelona's most recent La Liga outing vs Eibar saw him reach yet another huge milestone in his praiseworthy career - the 400 goal mark in La Liga. Talking to  Mundo Deportivo , the 31-year-old Barcelona captain singled out his best goal, which happens to be his first goal, against Albacete, back in May 2005.  "The first against Albacete from the pass of Ronnie [Ronaldinho], I will never forget," he said.  "The goals of the Clasicos are always special and against hard opponents that are usually  Atletico Madrid ,  Valencia  and  Sevilla ...  "Those that I have had the luck to score against our fans here in the Camp Nou they are always nice, and they are also special that I scored as a visitor because of the difficulty of playing away. "In the end, the most important goals are not the most spectacular, but those that serve us as a team to win." Talking about the 400 goal mark in La Liga, Messi said, "I

Barcelona captain/ Argentine maestro Lionel Messi is the first player to score 400 goals in La Liga, with his goal in Barcelona's 3-0 victory over Eibar at Camp Nou on Sunday. This is a boost to his amazing La Liga record as he has been the Spanish League's all-time top-scorer since November 2014. Messi has an average of 0.92 goals per game in La Liga. The mercurial magician is the second player to have scored 400 goals in any of Europe's top five leagues, Cristiano Ronaldo is the first. Messi has however reached this milestone in 63 games less than Ronaldo did. View this post on Instagram 4⃣0⃣0⃣ goals in @LaLiga! ⚽ The. Best. Ever. 🐐 4⃣0⃣0⃣ goles en La Liga 👏 Leo #Messi, único e irrepetible. 4⃣0⃣0⃣ gols a La Liga 👏 Leo #Messi, únic i irrepetible. 🔵🔴 A post shared by FC Barcelona (@fcbarcelona) on Jan 13, 2019 at 10:49am PST Of Messi's 400 La Liga strikes, 83 have been braces, and 31, braces. La Liga

Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez have now scored more goals than the entire Real Madrid squad. The mercurial Barcelona captain has found the back of the net on 16 occasions, while his Uruguayan counterpart has netted 12 times. The Real Madrid squad have scored just 26 goals since the start of the 2018/2019 La Liga season. The winning Latin American duo have scored more goals than the Atletico Madrid squad who like Real Madrid, have netted just 26 times. In the current La Liga Campaign, only Celta Vigo, Sevilla and Levante have equaled or surpassed Messi and Suarez's 28 goal tally. Celta Vigo has a goal tally of 28, while only Sevilla and Levante have scored more goals than the prolific Barcelona duo. 

FC Barcelona kicked off the new year without the holiday hangover as they secured and extended their lead in La Liga, following a 15-day La Liga winter break. Barcelona defeated hosts Getafe 2-1 yesterday as Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez marked their names on the scoresheet. Watch Messi closely in this video. He squeezes past three players, takes hits from two of them, stumbles, regains balance - but he never, not for one instant, takes his eye off the ball. No question of going down for the penalty. Just him, and the ball. pic.twitter.com/bVADL1ljb3 — Daniel Edwards 💚 (@DanEdwardsGoal) January 6, 2019 Messi opened scoring 20 minutes into the first half, charging through the penalty box to score Barcelona's first goal at close range. He ran onto a deflected ball, collected his rebound and netted the ball from an acute angle. 👏 For the fourth year in a row Messi scores the first goal of the year in @LaLiga . 🐐 ⚽ 2016: Messi ⚽ 2017: Messi ⚽ 2018: Messi ⚽ 2019: M

Lionel Messi and Barcelona team mate Luis Suarez paid the kids at Barcelona Hospital an emotional visit last Friday. The Barcelona forwards cheered the kids as they posed for pictures with them and signed autographs for them at the Barcelona Hospital. One of the kids was so overwhelmed by the presence of his soccer heroes and shed tears of joy. He received a ball signed by both Messi and Suarez. FC Barcelona shared pictures of the duo's visit on their official Twitter handle. See the pictures below. Barcelona face Getafe today in La Liga at 8:45 pm CET. Getafe sit seventh in La Liga while Barcelona is first.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice against Sampadoria in a 2-1 victory yesterday to carry his goal tally to 49. For the first time since 2011, Ronaldo has scored less than 50 goals in a calendar year. He reached his peak in 2013 with a goal tally of 69. Messi however is the highest goalscorer in a calendar year, with 91 goals scored in 2012.  Ronaldo is Serie A's top scorer with 14 goals, while Messi is La Liga Santander's Pichichi with 15 goals. Robert Lewandowski, Bayern Munich and Bundesliga top scorer for the year with 46 goals, comes third. Mohamed Salah and Liverpool triumphed in a 5-1 win over Arsenal yeserday, scoring once to take his goal tally to 44, and comes fourth. Harry Kane comes fifth with 42 goals, and Antoine Griezmann, sixth with 40 goals. See the top scorers and their stats below. 51 goals from 54 games: Lionel Messi (Barcelona & Argentina) 49 goals from 53 games: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Juventus & Portugal) 46 goals from 56 games

Barcelona return to first place in the La Liga table with their 2-0 victory over Celta Vigo today. That's a guaranteed merry Christmas for the Catalans. Barcelona now have 37 points, while Atletico Madrid follows closely with 34. Sevilla may join the Rojiblancos in second place after their game tomorrow. Former Borussia Dortmund man, Ousmane Dembele and Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi scored Barcelona's two goals. When you score you're 1⃣0⃣th goal in minute 1⃣0⃣ . . . You pop that cork, @Dembouz ! 🎉🎉🎉 #ForçaBarça pic.twitter.com/GSgFBTPzLd — FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) December 22, 2018 Celta were close to scoring in the third minute when Nestor Araujo headed the ball over the crossbar, following a corner. But seven minutes later, the Catalan side took the lead with a goal from Dembele. Good link up play between Jordi Alba and Messi created an opportunity for Messi which resulted in a shot saved by Ruben. Dembele was in close range, and turned the ball in. B

Argentinian football prodigy Lionel Messi claimed his fifth European Golden Shoe on Tuesday, December 18, 2018. The Barcelona captain and forward scored 34 times in La Liga last season - two goals more than Mohamed Salah's record-breaking 32 goal haul in the Premier League.  Messi has now surpassed Cristiano Ronaldo in terms of Golden Shoe wins, as Ronaldo has claimed the prestigious award four times, and Messi, five. At a post-awards gala in Barcelona, Messi said,  “When I started playing, I did not expect all this. My dream was, obviously, to be a professional, but I didn’t imagine so much." “This is thanks to hard work and effort and, above all, my teammates. I have the best players in the world in their positions playing beside me, and that makes everything easier and lets me win these prizes.” 🙌🔊 Leo #Messi 👟 #GoldenShoe pic.twitter.com/65IORUtr4R — FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) December 18, 2018 Messi was awarded the European Golden Shoe

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 M

Lionel Messi led the Blaugrana to an amazing 4-0 Derby victory at the RCDE Stadium on Saturday. Messi's opener - an amazing free-kick - against Catalan rivals Espanyol at the 17th minute into the game made him the first player to score 10 goals in 13 consecutive La Liga seasons. At the 26th minute, Messi provided Ousmane Dembele an assist for his goal. Dembele later set Luis Suarez for Barcelona's third goal in the first half of the game. The Barcelona captain scored his second goal through another brilliant free-kick in the 65th minute - his 11th La Liga strike of the season. ESPN gave the Barcelona playmaker a 10/10 rating for his breath-taking performance.  View this post on Instagram GOLAZOOOOOO FROM MESSI 😍😍😍🔥😍🔥😍😍😍😍😍😍😍🔥🔥🔥 #FCBarcelona #Barca #ViscaBarca #Barcelona #Messi #FCB #LM10 #LaLiga #Griezmann #Futbol #Skills #Tekkers #Nutmeg #Golazo #Goal #Dembele #Coutinho #Espanyol #Spain #Derby A post