Leo Messi is on form. Against Deportivo the Argentinian scored his eighth goal of the league season and has scored in the last three Liga encounters.
The run started with his famous hat trick against Real Madrid, then he added Barça’s fourth
in Huelva and made it five in three games with a superb effort to open the scoring against the
Galicians on Saturday night.
Messi has now achieved the same kind of streak as those recorded by fellow strikers
Ronaldinho and Eto’o. The Brazilian scored in rounds 8 to 10 against Recreativo, Deportivo
and Zaragoza, while before that Eto’o had scored in the first three games of the present
season against Celta, Osasuna and Racing Santander.
Record equalled
This is not the first time the amazing young player has scored in three games in a row. Last
season he did the same just before his injury that saw him sidelined for three months. That was in
rounds 19 to 22 against Athletic Bilbao, Alavés and Mallorca.
Since injuring the fifth metatarsal of his left foot, Messi has been on target five times in
the league, making a season total of eight. He joins Eto’o as the second highest goalscorer
this season, with Ronaldinho leading the chase with 17.
Larsson has best record under Rijkaard
Next week it’s off to La Romareda and Zaragoza, where Messi has the chance to move
closer to the streak established by Swede Henrik Larsson last season. The former Celtic player
scored in five consecutive outings last season, the best goalscoring streak for any Barça player
since Frank Rijkaard became manager.
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Messi: “Ronaldinho gave me a great pass”
After the match, Leo Messi said he was delighted to have scored and to have beaten Deportivo.
“It was an important goal because we were struggling to get into the game” he said.
“Ronaldinho gave me a great pass, he had seen how I was breaking free from my marker. I got
there in time to control the ball and score. But as I have always said, it is nice to score but it
is more important for the team to get wins and to stay at the top of the table.