Barcelona 2-0 Espanyol: 4 records Lionel Messi set in the match
Stating that Lionel Messi is a phenomenal player is just stating the obvious as no adjective can sufficiently describe the greatness the icon exudes on the field of play.
The 31-year-old rewrites football's history books at will, seemingly setting a new record every other week in his journey to being identified as the greatest player ever to lace up boots and grace a football field.
He has been the driving force behind Barcelona's quest for a treble this season, leading the charge in terms of goals and assists in a bid to ascertain his pride as the best player in the world.
In the Catalan derby against Espanyol, Lionel Messi was once more at his destructive best, playing a crucial role in the 2-0 victory to help the Blaugrana maintain the lead atop the league standings.
As expected, the Argentine record goalscorer wrote another chapter in what is already one of the greatest careers in history. In this piece, we shall be having a rundown of four records that Lionel Messi set in the game against Espanyol.
#4 Second highest appearance maker in Barcelona's history
At 17 years, three months and 22 days, the Argentine was the then youngest player to ever represent Barcelona in an official match.
His greatness has always been evident right from his record-breaking days in the Barca youth setup, but even a soothsayer with a crystal ball could not have predicted just how good the skinny, shy kid from Rosario would turn out to be.
15 years later and Lionel Messi has become unarguably the greatest player of all time at the Camp Nou, holding numerous records to back this claim.
Having spent the entirety of his professional career at Barcelona, it comes as no surprise that he ranks high up there on the list of appearance makers for the club.
The fixture against Espanyol meant he had worn the Maroon and Blue of Barcelona a total of 675 times in all competitions and took him above another Barcelona legend in Andres Iniesta as the second highest appearance maker in Barcelona's history.
Though he is still some way of the iconic Xavi in the first place, who turned out a whopping 767 times for Barca, with it looking increasingly likely that he would spend the rest of his career at Camp Nou, you can be sure that Messi would sit top of this list in the nearest future.