24.04.2011 11:04
Messi overtakes Puskas
Roger Bogunyà
Leo Messi’s 50th goal of the season breaks a new record in Spanish football. Messi has overtaken Ferenc Puskás’s record from the 1959/60 season (49 goals in all competitions). Here we review this, and other statistics, from the match.
► Messi’s 50 goals are distributed as follows: 31 in the League, 9 in the Champions
League, 7 in the Spanish Cup and 3 in the Spanish Super Cup. That’s 50 goals in 49 games.
► The other goalscorer against Osasuna was striker Villa, who thus ended his run of 11
consecutive games without scoring.
► Only four players who started in the Cup Final did so against Osasuna. They were
Alves, Mascherano, Busquets and Villa. Iniesta, Messi and Xavi all came on later.
► Mascherano, indeed, was one of Barça’s best players on Saturday. He won more
balls than anybody (14).
► The Osasuna game was not one of Barça’s best. In fact, Ricardo conceded two
goals but didn’t make a single save, while Valdes had 6 saves to make.
► Jeffren started a game in the League for the first time this season. The last time he
started a match was last season against Rubin Kazan (2-0).
► Pique, who was left out of the squad for the Osasuna game, had started in the last 8
games. He hadn’t missed a match since the Champions League game against Arsenal (3-1), when
he was suspended. In fact, he has only missed 2 of the last 26 Barça matches.
► With the 2-0 win, Barça have now gone 31 consecutive games without losing in the
League (since the 2-0 defeat against Hercules, in the 2nd match of the season). With 88 points and
with 15 still to play for, Barça can beat last season’s League record of 99 points.