Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
La Liga table toppers Barcelona celebrated their £142m capture of Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho in perfect fashion as they continued their unbeaten start to this La Liga campaign with a comfortable 3-0 win over Levante at the Camp Nou.
Ernesto Valverde’s men have picked up where they left off after the Spanish Christmas break as they made light work of their opposition yesterday afternoon, with who else but Lionel Messi opening the scoring as early as the 12th minute.
It was neat build up play between the Argentine and teammate Jordi Alba that led to the opener, Messi first chipped the ball to the former Valencia defender and after receiving the ball back he then proceeded to volley the ball home and in turn break the deadlock.
It was another landmark day for Lionel Messi as this game marked his 400th La Liga appearance for the club, while during this quadruple century of games he has scored a staggering 365 goals, giving him a games to goals ratio of 0.81.
Not only that but it was a history making afternoon also as his 365th La Liga goal equalled Gerd Muller’s record for goals in a single one of Europe’s top five leagues. The records and accolades just continue to go in Messi’s direction don’t they.
Although he scored the opener there was plenty of time for two more goals. firstly Luis Suarez doubled the home side’s advantage before half time and subsequently all but wrapped up the three points for the Catalan giants as Levante continued to toil.
While both Messi and Suarez played a part in the game’s third and final goal in injury time, the latter having the intelligence to leave the former’s low pass in the area and Brazilian international Paulinho was on hand to put the exclamation point on the win.
Barcelona’s South American triumvirate combining perfectly as the league leaders keep their nine point advantage over Atletico Madrid in second, with Real Madrid still way back in fourth.
Here is the best of yesterday’s action.
