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

Rayo Vallecano may be a second division club, but they were a tough opponent for Barcelona at the Copa del Rey last 16 game played on January 27th. Barcelona dominated the game, but Los Franjirrojos opened scoring first, with a goal from Fran Garcia. Barcelona won the Segunda side 2-1 at Vallencas, to progress to the quarter finals, thanks to second half goals from Lionel Messi and Frenkie de Jong. Messi was back in Barcelona's starting XI after serving a two-match ban for a red card he received in their Spanish Supercoppa loss to Athletic Bilbao on January 17. That was his first red card in his Barcelona career. He has now surpassed Barcelona Legend Josep Samitier as Barcelona player with the most matches played in the history of the Copa del Rey. Messi now has 76 appearances in the competition, one more than Josep Samitier. Sevilla crushed 2019 Copa winners Valencia 3-0 at home, joining Barcelona in Friday's quarterfinal draw.

The Supercopa de Espana (Spanish Super Cup) is not a prestigious trophy for Spanish football heavyweight Barcelona, but after a trophyless 2019/20 season, Barcelona edging closer to its first title is relieving for fans. Barcelona's first-half lead (a goal from Frenkie de Jong) in the semi-finals yesterday night was canceled by an equalizer from Real Sociedad (penalty scored by Mikel Oyarzabal) in the second half. They proceeded to play for an extra 30 minutes in prolongation, and headed on to win Barcelona's first penalty shoot-out since 1998. Messi did not play the game and was rested due to injury. The hero of the game was Barcelona goal keeper Marc-Andre ter Stergen who made three stunning saves in extra time - the first from Joseba Zaldua and the other two from Adnan Januzaj. Then came his penalty shoot-out heroics - he saved the first two Real Kicks, while their third hit the post. Teenage sensation drove home the final penalty kick for Barcelona sending the club into t...

You may not have heard of Josef Bican before, but he's the man Cristiano Ronaldo just equaled as highest goal scorer in history. On Sunday night, five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo scored a goal for Juventus vs Sassuolo - his 759th career goal - tieing Bican's record. Bican is a Czech striker who played for Austria during his career - he counts a total of 730 club goals and 29 national team goals.  The 35-year-old is officially past legends like Romario and Pele with his goal tally. Juventus' victory over Sassuolo on Sunday night lifted them to fourth place in the Serie A charts. Ronaldo only needs one more goal to become the highest scoring player ever. The players with the most official goals in football history are: 1.      Cristiano Ronaldo - 759 2.    Josef Bican - 759 3.    Pele - 757.

Barcelona's most recent outings have been exciting, with quite some progress from their dull start to the season. Barcelona's 4-0 win over Granada extends Barcelona's unbeaten run to eight games. Messi is back on top of the Pichichi standings with 11 goals to his name. He's been in pretty good form lately with four goals and an assist in his last three games. Messi scored a brace despite being taken off in the second half. Messi put an end to his mini free-kick drought with his second goal. Griezmann was exceptional as well, providing an assist for Messi and scoring two himself. He opened scoring for Barcelona with a fine left-footed finish in the 12th minute. According to OptaJose, Griezmann has now been in three goals in the same game for Barcelona for the second time in all competitions (two goals and an assist against Real Betis in August 2019.

Barcelona captain Lionel Messi had a turbulent summer, with doubts cast over his Barcelona future, but he's back to his best self in 2021. On Wednesday night, Barcelona won Athletic Bilbao 3-2 with a goal from Pedri and a brace from Messi.  Inaki Williams gave Athletic Bilbao an early lead in the third minute. Messi swept home a cheeky backheel from Pedri to give Barcelona the lead after Pedri's equalizer a few minutes after Inaki's goal for Athletic. He then scored Barcelona's third with Antoine Griezmann's assist. With the win, Barcelona are now third in La Liga - five points behind second-placed Real Madrid and seven adrift of table leaders Atletico Madrid. Messi and three others, including Luis Suarez top the goalscoring charts in Spain with nine goals each. Koeman was pleased with the Pedri-Messi connection, and praised the 18-year-old who completed over 90% of his attempted passes. "Pedri is showing despite his youth that he is very mature," the Dutc...

Lionel Messi finished third at The Best FIFA Men's player award this year - at the ceremony which took place earlier this month. This year's ceremony saw Robert Lewandowski winning, and Cristiano Ronaldo emerging second. According to Felix Kroos, brother of Real Madrid midfield veteran Toni Kroos, Messi didn't deserve a spot in the final three. "Lewandowski deserves it, absolutely," the 29-year-old, who plays for German second division outfit Eintracht Braunschweig, told his older brother's Einfach mal Luppen podcast. "But, for me, Messi doesn't belong in the top three, because I don't think he did well this year." He also lamented about the short-term thinking that dominates modern football. “You win the Champions League one, two, three times in a row and four weeks later you lose the first friendly, the first test match, and suddenly s*** smells again," he said.