Lionel Messi reached another milestone on Wednesday in FC Barcelona's impressive 2-0 win against Ajax in their UEFA Champions League Group F match at Amsterdam Arena in Netherlands.
Messi scored his 70th and 71st goal on Wednesday to equal Raul's Champions League record - something that Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo failed to do on Tuesday.
Messi tied the goal-scoring record in just 90 Champions League Games for Barcelona. Raul needed 142 games with Real Madrid and Schalke from 1995 to 2011 to set the record. Ronaldo, on the other hand, has 70 goals in 106 appearances in the prestigious tournament.
"I am happy, the truth is this was not most important today," Messi said via ESPN FC. "That was to the get the important three points to try and keep fighting with Paris to win the group. But I am happy to have achieved it."
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique praised Messi, saying that the Argentine is the best player that he has ever seen, while Barcelona teammate Xavi Hernandez said that the superstar forward deserves to get the record.
"I'm happy for Leo because of the work he does for the team and because he is number one, the best," Xavi said of Messi. "Leo has a free role along with the others up front, but they also have some important defensive work to do. At this club we all work and when we all work the team functions."
Meanwhile, Chelsea settled for a 1-1 draw against Maribor, and Blues manager Jose Mourinho isn't amused with the way officials handled the match.
Mourinho said that they should have won the match and secured qualification to the next round, but the referees ruined their bid after disallowing a Diego Costa goal, which was ruled out for offside.
"We scored two goals, two very good goals. The second goal, the referee decided to disallow but it's a clear goal," Mourinho said after the game. "Normally we should win because we scored two goals, but we have to accept it. We didn't reach the number of goals that we should have in the second half, but the team played well, and we scored a great second goal. And the referee's team did not have a good night."
Check the complete results of Tuesday's Champions League action.
- Bayern Munich 2 - 0 AS Roma
- Manchester City 1 - 2 CSKA Moscow
- Ajax 0 - 2 Barcelona
- Paris Saint-Germain 1 - 0 Apoel Nicosia
- Maribo 1 - 1 Chelsea
- Sporting Lisbon 4 - 2 Schalke 04
- Athletic Bilbao 0 - 2 FC Porto
- Shakhtar Donetsk 5 - 0 Bate Borisev
