“From just inside the box, Messi pauses Rakitić’s pass with a dead stop, then whips a sudden left-footed strike across goal into the far corner to make it 4–1, his second of the night and career goal number 560.”
A ruthless brace in just 62 minutes sets the tone for Barcelona’s rout of Osasuna, with Messi repeatedly driving play forward and finishing clinically in a dominant league outing during his peak years.
From a tight first-half deadlock against Deportivo, Messi meets Dani Alves’ cut-back with a calm left-foot finish from a central angle, breaking the 0–0 and pushing his La Liga tally to 62 career goals (105 overall).
From just outside the box against Osasuna, Messi pauses over the ball then whips a rising left-foot strike into the far top corner, a trademark yet visually stunning finish that seals a 4–0 win and becomes career goal number 712 and his 448th in La Liga.
With Barcelona clinging to a one-goal lead, Messi bends in a low-probability strike (xG 0.0589) to finally shake off Deportivo in a 5–4 thriller, completing his hat-trick and bringing up career goal 299.
From an xG of just 0.06, Messi rifles a low‑probability left‑footer past Valencia to drag Barça level at 1–1, capping a Man of the Match display with his 389th La Liga goal and 628th of his career.