Barcelona has secured its 13th victory in the ongoing La Liga by defeating Athletic Bilbao. Barcelona thrashed Bilbao by a huge margin of 5-1. This is the best ever start for Barcelona in La Liga. The previous best was in 1991-92 season when Barcelona had won 12 out of its first 14 matches.
Lionel Messi was again the main contributor in Barcelona’s victory. The Argentinean scored a brace which was his 11th brace in the season. He is now only two goals away from breaking Gerd Muller’s world record of scoring the maximum number of goals in a calendar year. Muller had scored 85 goals in 1972 and Messi has already scored 84 goals this year.
Messi has scored 28 goals in the ongoing season so far out of which 21 have been scored in La Liga. He is currently the leading goal scorer in the ongoing La Liga.
Apart from Messi, the other three goal scorers for Barcelona in the match against Bilbao were Adriano, Gerard Pique and Cesc Fabregas. Now, Barcelona is 11 points ahead of its arch rivals and defending champions Real Madrid.
In the post match press conference, Tito Vilanova said, “I am proud of my team. It was an amazing performance. We just demolished them. The attitude of the team was fantastic. Even after getting ahead by 5-1, the boys didn’t relax and were trying to score another goal till the very last minute which was really heartening to see.”
Fabregas also looked delighted after this victory. The Spaniard said, “It was a great day for us. Each and every player of the team gave his best and that’s why we won by such a big margin.”
Barcelona will play its next match against Benfica on Wednesday.