The Barça number 10 reaches a century of matches in Europe

Almost every game brings a new landmark in the career of Leo Messi. In the first leg of the semi-final of the Champions League against Bayern Munich, the Argentine reached a century of matches in Europe in a Barça shirt. 97 of those games have come in the Champions League and three in the European Super Cup in 2006, 2009 and 2011.

In those 100 games can be found five European trophies: amongst those titles are three Champions League victories; in Paris in 2006, in Rome 2009 and at Wembley in 2011. Messi did not make an appearance in the final in Paris but in the other two he was a deciding factor scoring in both games. Thanks to those victories he went to claim two Super Cup titles in Monaco.

Top goalscorer in the Champions League

Leo Messi has broken almost every record that there is. One of the last to fall was surpassing Raúl as the Champions League’s top goalscorer. It happened against APOEL in Nicosia, with a hat-trick earning him yet another place in the record books.

That long-ago debut

Messi’s first European fixture was on December 7, 2004 in Donetsk. It was the last game in the group stage of the Champions League and Barça were already through to the knockout stage. Against Shakhtar, Frank Rijkaard chose to give a chance to the young Argentinian just two months after he had made his Liga debut in a derby at Monjuïc. A legendary player’s European journey was about to begin!