‘Monstrous’ Messi drives in 400th league goal for Barca
MADRID: Lionel Messi scored his 400th La Liga goal on Sunday, a total his coach Ernesto Valverde called “monstrous”, as Barcelona terrorised Eibar to reclaim their five-point cushion at the top of the table. Messi drove the ball into the bottom corner after being teed up by Luis Suarez, who added two goals to his own tally either side of the Argentinian marking another historic record at the Camp Nou. “It’s monstrous,” said Valverde, after the 3-0 victory. “It’s easy to say but you have to score them one after the other — it’s a long-term job. “His numbers are stratospheric, incredible. He is from another galaxy.” Victory saw Valverde’s side restore their advantage over Atletico Madrid, who had briefly cut the gap to two points after beating Levante earlier in the day. “There is a lot of time left,” Valverde said. “It is a good cushion but nothing is done yet.” Messi, meanwhile, extends his own hefty lead as the division’s all-time top scorer, which currently stands at 89 goals, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo, now at Juventus in Italy, owns a better goals-to-game ratio, with his 311 strikes coming in 292 matches. Messi’s quadruple century arrived in his 435th. In fact, it was one of Messi’s quieter nights in terms of performance and in another team it might have been Suarez or Philippe Coutinho picking up the plaudits. Messi’s moment came in the 53rd minute and it was Suarez who started it, stealing back possession after a heavy touch from Anaitz Arbilla. He bounced it off Coutinho and found Messi, who touched and rifled in. Earlier, Antoine Griezmann’s second-half penalty earned Atletico a 1-0 victory over Levante. Griezmann has now scored all of Atletico’s last six goals and his latest one proved the difference in a cagey contest at the Wanda Metropolitano. The pressure has been on Real Madrid all season but they battled to a 2-1 win over Betis for their first league victory of 2019.