MADRID: Lionel Messi became Barcelona’s all-time top scorer Tuesday when he scored a hat trick to take his Barcelona tally to 234 goals in the club’s 5-3 win over Granada at the Nou Camp.
The win against Granada took Barca to within five points of Madrid, with the league leaders playing away at Villarreal Wednesday.
Argentina international Messi hit the record-equaling goal, held by the great Cesar Rodriguez, when he made it 2-0 to Barca in the 17th minute, volleying the ball in off a post from a deflected Isaac Cuenca cross before scoring the record-breaker in the second half with a beautiful chip. Messi then added his third goal of the game with five minutes to go, rounding the goalkeeper and finishing high into the net.
The 24-year-old World Player of the Year, who now has 53 goals in all competitions this season, matched the mark set by Cesar in the 1940s and 50s in his 314th appearance. Cesar needed 354 official games.
Previously, Cesar was believed to have scored 235 goals for Barcelona.
But “a study has revealed that the legendary Cesar Rodriguez in fact scored 232 goals, or just one more than the Argentinean, who could equal or beat that score against Granada,” Barcelona said earlier Tuesday on their website.
Cesar played in the 1940s and 1950s and died in 1995 at the age of 74.
Cuenca was also the architect of Barcelona’s first goal, beating his man down the left wing before crossing to the far post where Messi headed the ball to a waiting Xavi who volleyed in from close range.
Diego Mainz got Granada back into the game 10 minutes into the second half, glancing a free kick past a stranded Victor Valdes.
Siqueira pulled back a surprise equalizer when he converted a penalty after Dani Benitez was clumsily brought down by Dani Alves on 60 minutes.
Seven minutes later Messi hit his historic goal, latching onto Alves’ through ball before lobbing it over the onrushing goalkeeper.
Christian Tello iced the game in the last 10 minutes, smashing in a rebound from Messi’s shot into the far corner of the net before Messi scored his hat trick goal in the 90th minute.
Siqueira scored again from the spot for a late consolation goal.
Real Madrid go into Wednesday’s game against struggling Villarreal looking to rebound from a draw that boosted rival Barcelona’s slim hopes of winning a fourth straight Spanish league title.
The Spanish leader conceded a stoppage time equalizer Sunday in a 1-1 draw against Malaga that allowed Barcelona to move to within eight points of the lead.
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said his team’s chances of winning the championship were near zero before Madrid’s draw, but Madrid’s players were weary of falling into any kind of motivational trap to aid their Catalan rivals.
“I don’t care what Guardiola says, what I worry about is what my coach says and thinks about us. We never thought the league was done,” Madrid captain Iker Casillas said. “We’ve won enough to be in this position and now we have to defend our lead game by game, and that’s what we intend to do.”
Villarreal coach Miguel Angel Lotina will make his debut for the struggling club, which have lost four of their last five games to hover just above the relegation zone. Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Levante led to the club firing Jose Molina to make a third coaching change of what has been a miserable season.
Since 1998, the 11 previous teams to make a coaching change before playing Madrid have gone on to lose nine times and draw twice.
“It would be odd if Madrid doesn’t end up champion but in football many things can happen,” said Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini.
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