Barcelona 4 - 0 Real Betis: 5 Talking Points
The dream year of 2015 ended on a high note for the Blaugrana as they finished it with an emphatic 4-0 victory over Real Betis at the Camp Nou. Returning from the Club World cup as World Champions, Barcelona won their last game of an extremely dominating year with much ease.Messi netted his sixth league goal of the season as he played his 500th game for Barcelona, quite an achievement in itself. The other goals came as a brace from Suarez and an own goal from Betis man, Heiko Westermann.Here are the major talking points from the game.
#1 Messi hits the 500 mark for Barcelona
Lionel Messi crossed yet another milestone when he played his 500th game for Barcelona since making his debut back in 2004. This is a great achievement as he enters an elite group of players with only five players having reached this milestone before.
Long time teammate and legend Xavi Hernandez holds the record at 737 and is followed by Carles Puyol at 593, Andres Iniesta at 568, Migueli at 549, Victor Valdes at 535 and finally Lionel Messi at 500. It is to be noted that Iniesta and Messi are still active at the club.
Messi’s game number 500 was a match to remember as he was the scorer of a beautiful team goal which put the side 2-0 up. This was also Messi’s 425th goal for the club in 500 games, with 292 having been scored in La Liga.
He has been scoring mesmerizing goals all over the year and excluding the last two months when he was away with injuries, the Barcelona talisman has had a wonderful year. He is undoubtedly the front-runner to win the 2015 Ballon d’Or.