300-up Messi makes history as Barca open big lead

Messi scored twice in a 3-1 win at Sporting Gijon on Wednesday to take his tally to 301 league goals in 335 games as Barca extended their lead at the top of the table to six points.

The Barcelona forward is on 299 La Liga goals going intoWednesday night’s league clash with Sporting after spurning the opportunity to reach the 300-goal landmark from the penalty spot on Sunday night.

Cuellar prevented a fourth with another save from Neymar but the visitors had done more than enough to move six points ahead of Atletico Madrid.

Messi opened the scoring with a well-struck low shot in the 25th minute and added his second from close range in the 31st, four minutes after Sporting equalized with striker Carlos Castro in a breakaway at the El Molinon Stadium.

The Catalan giants will enter the match on the back of a 30-game winning run in all competitions and having thumped Celta Vigo 6-1 in the league at the weekend, which stretched their lead at the top of La Liga to three points.

However, Barcelona boss Luis Enrique defended his players. No other team has had more than a two-point advantage atop the standings this season. “We wan a lot and for 70 minutes you could say that we played face-to-face with Barcelona“. “What matters in the end is regularity and we’ve been doing a very good job so far”.

Wednesday’s game was postponed from the 16th round because Barcelona was playing at FIFA’s Club World Cup in Japan, a tournament it won.

But Gijon never looked likely to break Barca’s spell and remain two points above the drop zone.

Ivan Cuellar denied Messi a hat-trick a minute later when he parried his shot and Brazilian Neymar nearly scored when he curled the rebound on to the far post.

Considering Messi’s haul have come in just 334 La Liga games, that really is some achievement. They are very fortunate to have been brought up the way they have and to play this possession football so much more.

Sporting Gijon manager Abelardo Fernandez conceded his side were helpless to stop the reigning champions.