Messi marks another major milestone
Barcelona star scores his 350th Spanish league goal, adds a second tally in team’s 2-0 win over Alaves
MADRID — Lionel Messi missed a penalty kick but rebounded by scoring his record 350th goal in the Spanish league in Barcelona’s 2-0 win at Alaves Saturday.
Messi also scored the second goal, leading the club to its second consecutive victory to start the league.
Barcelona was still without Ousmane Dembele, announced as Neymar’s replacement Friday, and it also couldn’t count on the injured Luis Suarez.
With Messi as its lone star, Barcelona struggled in the beginning at Mendizorroza Stadium, but gradually took control and cruised to victory following Messi’s second-half goals.
“We overcame a tough test,” Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde said. “It was difficult to get the first goal, we had to be patient.”
Messi missed the penalty when his mid-height shot into the left corner was saved by the fingertips of Alaves goalkeeper Fernando Pacheco.
Alaves, who surprised last season as a promoted club by finishing ninth in the league and reaching the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona, opened with a 1-0 loss at Leganes.
Brazil midfielder Paulinho, signed by Barcelona for 40 million euros in the off-season, came into the match as a substitute late in the second half to make his official club debut.
Messi scored the milestone goal in La Liga more than 12 years after his first, when he was only 17.
He has 66 more than Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, his closest challenger in the all-time list.
Messi is only the second player to have surpassed 350 goals in the top five European leagues, after Bayern Munich’s Gerd Mueller, who ended his career with 365 in Bundesliga.
Messi has at least one Spanish league goal in 14 straight seasons.
He opened the scoring in the second half after receiving a pass from Jordi Alba inside the area and firing a left-footed shot into the corner. The second came after a blunder by the Alaves defence about 10 minutes later, again with a left-footer from inside the box.
Defending champion Real Madrid, which also won its opener, is home to Valencia on Sunday.
JUVE BOUNCES BACK
The limitations of video review were obvious at Genoa, where Juventus fought back from two goals down to win 4-2 in Serie A on Saturday thanks to a hat trick from Paulo Dybala.
Video review (VAR) was used twice in the first half, to give both sides a penalty. However, Genoa forward Andrej Galabinov was offside before he was fouled by Daniele Rugani, while there were also grumbles about Juve’s spot kick.
Meanwhile, Benevento thought it picked up a first-ever point in Serie A, but the VAR ruled out what would have been a stoppage-time equalizer and it lost to Bologna 1-0.
In a frantic start, Genoa took the lead against Juventus inside 20 seconds when Miralem Pjanic inadvertently turned Goran Pandev’s cross into his own net.
Galabinov doubled Genoa’s lead six minutes later from the spot after his ankle was clipped by Rugani.
Dybala halved the deficit in the 14th minute when he fired Pjanic’s pullback into the top left corner.
And Juventus levelled in firsthalf stoppage time through a penalty of its own, which Dybala drove emphatically into the roof of the net.
Juan Cuadrado had a poor match, but gave Juventus the lead shortly after the hour mark. The Colombia winger chested down Mandzukic’s pass, turned Diego Laxalt and placed the ball into the far top corner.