Barcelona trashed Real Valladolid 5-1 on Tuesday as they showed the early season woes were just a temporary set-back and Lionel Messi grabbed a brace in the process to eclipse Cristiano Ronaldo’s career goals and show everyone how foolish the constant comparisons really is.
Clement Lenglet, Arturo Vidal and Luis Suarez were also on the score sheet but most of the news centered around Messi’s latest stat. The Argentine has now completed 608 career goals in 695 games while he continues to make it look like it isn’t much of a big deal despite it being nothing short of a magic.
The free kick he curled in before the game ended also happen to be his 50th and his assist to Suarez to finish up Barca’s perfect night meant that the diminutive forward continues to be the perfect all-round player any club could dream of.
As always, after the game, the Argentine was not even interested in discussing his latest feat while his coach Ernesto Valverde was more than happy to gush over the man whose magical performances remains the sole reason he hasn’t been fired by the club chiefs.
Talking about the No. 10’s ingenuity, the coach says:
“It’s not just a question of an individual move. We have these times in training, you think he’s going to pass to the left or right, but he passes somewhere you can’t anticipate. You only see it with this type of player.”
As the rescheduled El Clasico continues to draw close, Barcelona increasingly looks like a team who will only extend the gap between them and their biggest rivals while Real Madrid looks like they are going to spend the whole season figuring out what works best for them and spectacularly failing at it since Ronaldo is no longer there to bail them out and Eden Hazard has proven incapable of filling his shoes.