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Lionel Messi was in brilliant form on Monday night as he inspired Barcelona to a 4-1 triumph over Huesca, scoring a brace and providing an assist. It was a special occasion as he equaled Xavi's record number of appearances in a Barcelona jersey.  Barceona's first goal of the night came from Messi in the 13th minute, the second came from Antoine Griezmann 10 minutes before half-time - a near copycat goal of Messi's, the third from Oscar Mingueza (assisted by Messi) early in the second half, and the fourth by Messi in the last minutes of play.  "It's a good result and we keep growing," Koeman said after the match. "We were good in the first half and maintained the intensity in the second half. We did lose a little bit of concentration after the break, maybe there was a bit of tiredness. But the objective was to win and we've done that." Barcelona  have now managed 11 wins and a draw from their last 12 matches, and are now only four points awa

Lionel Messi continues to be of utmost importance to Barcelona in his thirties. He made more history yesterday as Barcelona played Real Valladolid. Messi provided the assist to Arturo Vidal's goal - the lone goal of the night and winner for Barcelona. This was Messi's 20th assist of the season. Only Xavi has achieved such a feat in the history of La Liga. Xavi achieved that in the 2008/2009 season.  Messi has scored 22 league goals this season in addition to his 20 assists. He is only the second player to achieve this feat in Europe's top five leagues this century. Thiery Henry was the first, scoring 24 goals and contributing 20 assists for Arsenal during the 2002/2003 Premier League season. So far, Messi is the highest goalscorer in La Liga this season, with Karim Benzema following with 18.