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PARIS. — Lionel Messi has broken Pele’s record for most goals and assists EVER.
The Argentine was in devastating form as Paris Saint-Germain smashed Maccabi Haifa 7-2 in the Champions League football on Tuesday night.
Messi (35) grabbed two goals and two assists as his side sealed qualification to the round of 16.
In doing so, he reached a combined total of 1 127 goal involvements in his career.
This overtakes the great Pele, who OneFootball attribute 1 126 goal involvements to.
During his remarkable career, Messi has scored 672 goals for Barcelona, 22 for PSG and 90 for Argentina.
He has racked up an unbelievable number of assists too, taking him well over the 1 000 mark.
Pele’s goal tally is often refuted, with many believed to have come in friendly matches.
But Messi has beaten the sum reported by OneFootball.
In another landmark achievement, he became the oldest player to bag two goals and two assists in a single Champions League game.
On Tuesday night, his first goal was a nonchalant, outside-of-the-foot finish.
His second was pretty much his trademark — fast feet outside the area and then a precise curler into the corner.
Messi kept up his stellar pre-World Cup form to help rampant Paris Saint-Germain become one of four teams to advance to the last 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday night, along with Chelsea, Benfica and Borussia Dortmund.
That’s more than half of the round of 16 line-up confirmed now — five clubs had already gone through — and PSG will be one of the teams their rivals are looking to avoid, especially with Messi in this mood. Kylian Mbappe, too.
At opposite ends of their careers, the two superstar forwards are tasked with guiding the French champions to a first Champions League title and they both scored twice in a 7-2 thrashing of Maccabi Haifa.
Neymar, the other member of the team’s high-profile attacking trident, also scored in a victory that guaranteed PSG a top-two finish alongside Benfica in Group H. Both teams are on 11 points heading into the final round.
Benfica were a 4-3 winner over Juventus, who have failed to reach the knockout stage for the first time since the 2013-14 season.
With perhaps the best goal of the 33 scored in the next-to-last round of group games, Kai Havertz whipped a long-range shot in off the crossbar to earn Chelsea a 2-1 win at Salzburg and a first-place finish in Group E.
It’s the 18th time in 19 group-stage campaigns that Chelsea, a two-time Champions League winner, have advanced. PSG have done so for 11 straight seasons now but have yet to win European football’s biggest prize.
Dortmund joined Manchester City in advancing from Group G after drawing 0-0 with the English champions, who are now sure to finish in first place.
Already-qualified Real Madrid, the defending champion, lost 3-2 at Leipzig and must wait to seal top spot on Group F.
Leipzig are on the brink of advancing after moving three points clear of Shakhtar Donetsk, who drew 1-1 at Celtic.
Messi is certainly in his best form since joining Qatari-backed PSG and might not be too far from his Barcelona prime, a month before he attempts to win the World Cup for the first time with Argentina.
It’s 11 goals in his last nine games for club and country, and 129 career goals in the Champions League — 11 behind his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who isn’t playing in the competition this season at Manchester United.
Messi, who also set up two goals against Maccabi, set PSG on their way with a casual finish with the outside of his left foot from a standing start.
Mbappe curled home from a similar position for the second goal and made the decoy run that allowed Messi to play in Neymar for the third goal.
Messi added his second before half-time when he ran toward the area, checked back onto his left foot inside a would-be tackler, and found the bottom corner from 20 metres.
The crowd inside the Parc des Princes was lapping it up and there were further goals from Mbappe, and Carlos Soler, as well as an own-goal, after the break.
PSG conceded two goals from set-pieces to blot their performance.
Juventus’ earliest Champions League exit in nearly a decade came a day after the Italian team learned that club president Andrea Agnelli, vice-president Pavel Nedved and CEO Maurizio Arrivabene are among 15 people placed under investigation for alleged false accounting and irregularities in player transfers.
One of the few remaining clubs clinging onto the idea of a European Super League, Juventus faces a struggle to return to the Champions League next season after a slow start to Serie A.
They sure couldn’t keep up with Benfica, for whom António Silva, João Mário and Rafa Silva scored in a wild first half. Silva added a second after half-time.
Late goals from Arkadiusz Milik and Weston McKennie proved in vain for Juventus, who have lost four of their five group games.
Erling Haaland didn’t enjoy his return to former club Dortmund.
The striker was replaced by Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola at half-time, perhaps with an eye to future English Premier League games and with the team already through to the last 16. Guardiola also said Haaland had been struggling with a fever.
City winger Riyad Mahrez had a penalty saved in the second half — he also failed from the spot against FC Copenhagen two weeks ago — as Dortmund claimed the point they needed to advance. — AFP
Online Reporter