Messi sets new Champions League record in 700th Barca game

Lionel Messi marked his 700th Barcelona appearance in style as he set a new Champions League milestone in netting against Borussia Dortmund.

The Argentine started against the Bundesliga side on Wednesday in a landmark game that brought up his seventh century as a Blaugrana player.

And he celebrated in trademark style as the visitors were made to suffer at Camp Nou.

Barca needed 29 minutes to get off the mark, Messi playing in Luis Suarez to convert past Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Burki.

Four minutes later the Uruguayan returned the favour, finding Messi in space to allow the Argentine to net his second of the current Champions League campaign.

Messi failed to hit the net in Barca’s first game against Dortmund in September, having come off the bench as a second-half substitute in a game that ultimately finished 0-0.

But he made up for that oversight at Camp Nou, marking yet another Champions League best in the process.

Dortmund became Messi’s 34th victim in the competition on Wednesday, a tally that no other player in history can match.

The Argentine previously shared the record with Raul and Cristiano Ronaldo, who have each netted against 33 different opponents in the Champions League.

Messi and Suarez’s efforts were enough to send Barca into half time with a healthy 2-0 lead, leaving them on the brink of qualification for the last 16.

A win for Ernesto Valverde’s men will assure an unassailable four-point advantage over Dortmund at the top of Group F with just one game, away to Inter on December 10, left to play.

Barca went into Wednesday’s clash unbeaten in the Champions League, with wins over the Italians and Slavia Prague tempered with that away tie against BVB and a 0-0 stalemate with the Czechs at Camp Nou.

In addition to Barca’s Champions League success so far, the Catalan side sit top of La Liga through 13 matches, level on points with rival Real Madrid but ahead on goal differential.

Following Wednesday’s Champions League action, Barca will look ahead to Sunday’s clash with Atletico Madrid, who sit fourth in La Liga entering the weekend.

Source: (Goal.com)