PARIS: Lionel Messi was hailed as the best player ever by Barcelona coach Luis Enrique after setting a Champions League scoring record of 74 goals with a hat-trick in Tuesday’s 4-0 win at APOEL Nicosia.
Messi came into the match level with Spaniard Raul on 71 Champions League goals but he stabbed home from close range on 37 minutes to take sole possession of the record.
He went on to notch a hat-trick on the night as Barcelona remained a point behind Paris Saint-Germain at the top of Group F after the French team beat Ajax 3-1 thanks to an Edinson Cavani brace and one from Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
“Messi is the greatest player of all time, football is the king of sports and he will continue to surprise everyone for a long time,” said Enrique.
Messi’s feat came just four days after the four-time World Player of the Year broke Telmo Zarra’s 59-year-old record of 251 La Liga goals with a hat-trick in a 5-1 thrashing of Sevilla to take his tally in the Spanish top flight to 253 goals in 289 appearances.
On the other hand, Suarez, who has made four assists for Barcelona in the La Liga since playing for the club after serving his four-month ban, scored his first goal for the Catalan club but said that he was never anxious about scoring for Barcelona.
“I wasn’t anxious about scoring as I knew the moment would come,” said Suarez.
“I was helping the team in the best possible way. The important thing is to get the results and that is what we are doing.”
Stunning Aguero treble gives Man City hope
Vincent Kompany hailed Sergio Aguero as Manchester City’s ‘special player’ after the Argentine’s hat-trick earned a rousing 3-2 comeback win over Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Aguero scored from the penalty spot mid-way through the first half after Mehdi Benatia had been sent off, only for goals from birthday boy Xabi Alonso and Robert Lewandowski to put Bayern in front at half-time at the Etihad Stadium. But a mistake from Alonso enabled Aguero to equalise in the 85th minute and six minutes later the Argentine exploited an error by City old boy Jerome Boateng to give Manuel Pellegrini’s side a dramatic victory.
City will now go into their final game away to Roma level on points with the Italian side and CSKA Moscow, meaning they will qualify if they win and the Russian champions fail to win at Bayern, who were already guaranteed to qualify as Group E winners.
“Sergio Aguero is our special player and when he is in that form he makes things achievable,” said Kompany.
Manager Manuel Pellegrini echoed his captain’s words and was nothing but praise for the Argentinian.
“I think all the big teams need big players and Aguero is a big player” said Pellegrini.
Five-goal Chelsea match awayday best
Coach Jose Mourinho saluted his ‘very good’ Chelsea side after they produced a 5-0 demolition of Schalke 04 on Tuesday to equal their best away victory in the Champions League.
“Normally teams, when they are winning 3-0 or 4-0, they make defensive mistakes and allow the opposing team to score,” said Mourinho. “Not today! I even think we should have scored more goals.”
The Londoners, who are also runaway leaders in the Premier League, took their unbeaten start to the season to 19 games and also matched the 5-0 Champions League victory they recorded at Galatasaray in 1999.
Results
Borisov 0-3 Porto
Moscow 1-1 Roma
APOEL 0-4 Barcelona
Man City 3-2 Munich
PSG 3-1 Ajax
Schalke 0-5 Chelsea
Shakhtar 0-1 Bilbao
Lisbon 3-1 Maribor
Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2014.
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