Messi Sets New La Liga Record As Barcelona Triumph 4-0

Argentine star and current World footballer of the year, Lionel Messi cannot stop breaking new grounds. Once again, he stole the show as the Catalans returned to winning ways following the resumption of soccer hostilities after coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic lockdown.

In Barcelona’s first match since the campaign was suspended in March due to the global pandemic, Messi set another La Liga record as Barcelona won 4-0 on the night.

Making a winning return to the pitch, the Spanish League leaders steamrolled hosts Real Mallorca in a match that saw Arturo Vidal opening scores after just two minutes.

Thereafter, Messi set up Martin Braithwaite for his first Barca goal while Jordi Alba made the points safe for Barca.

As it stands today, the Argentina captain is the only player to score 20 or more goals in Spain’s top flight in 12 consecutive seasons.

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Messi has become the first player to score 20+ goals in 12 straight La Liga seasons 🙌 ⚽#MallorcaBarca

Ahead of Barcelona’s return to action, club legend Rivaldo stressed Messi’s workload must be managed carefully , though the 32-year-old did end up playing the full 90 minutes on Saturday.

“Lionel Messi had some physical issues last week, so there’s a lot of discussion about whether he play the whole game for Barcelona in their first game back against Mallorca on Saturday,” Rivaldo told Betfair.

“Barca are two points head of Real Madrid at the top of the table so the title race is tight. If Barca can pull away, they could rest Messi in a few games.

“If the battle goes to the wire then he might have fewer chances to rest – perhaps only in games which Barca manage to dominate from the first-half – but it will be important for Quique Setien to manage his squad well, as it won’t just be Messi that will reach the first game still looking to be 100 per cent fit, after all everyone has stopped and it’s not easy to resume on the best form.

“As we know, Messi is always in contention for the ‘Pichichi’ top scorer award in La Liga and always making the difference in the team, so he wants to be on the pitch all the time and it’s difficult for the manager to rotate him.”

According to Rivaldo; “He also fights for the Ballon d’Or every season and that’s on his mind regularly, so you can’t go to Messi and simply tell him ‘take a rest’.” – Goal.com