Messi hits 50 goals

Leo Messi notched up his 50th goal of the season with another brace as Barcelona beat Racing Santander last night. Barcelona still remain 10 points behind league leaders Real Madrid who managed to beat Real Betis away by 3 goals to 2.

The Argentine is a goal scoring machine at the moment after scoring five goals in mid-week against a hapless leverkusen side. Yesterday, Leo found the net twice, a goal in both halves, with the second being a penalty after Cesc Fabregás went down too softly in the box.

This victory now means that Barca have now won their last four league games and Guardiola says that they are bouncing back after having so many players sidelined.

Guardiola said after the game: “We have been playing well for a while, but we have had to suffer from a lot of injuries and while players have come in and done well, it still puts a greater strain on the team”.
“It was a good game from us and we managed well to pass the ball around but it is never easy against a side who have nine at the back. We also had to be wary of Racing on the counter-attack which we were able to do.
“As we were 13 points behind Real we just had to go out at 100 percent and give our best. Racing are among a group of teams that will fight to the end to avoid relegation and I hope they have a good end to the season.”

Barcelona quickly began to dominate Racing from the get go and it showed that the hosts haven’t won a game in eight outings. Racing have also appointed Alvaro Cervera as their new coach to help steer them out of trouble.

Barcelona gradually began to find their groove with Messi having a free kick tipped over the bar by the Racing keeper and Iniesta hitting the crossbar from a nice little chip shot. Cesc then picked out Messi with a low cross and the Pulga converted the goal to make it 0-1.

Although Barca had the game in their pocket and the majority of play, it wasn’t until 56 minutes that Messi converted from the spot sending the keeper the wrong way after Domingo Cisma was adjudged to have pulled down Fabregás in the box. In my opinion it wasn’t a penalty and Fabregás was lucky to escape a yellow for his theatrics. The ref saw differently though and two Racing players picked up yellow cards for the affray that ensued afterwards in protest.

That was it for the night, still 10 points behind the leaders but looking stronger than ever now to capitalize just in case Real Madrid falters.