Lionel Messi breaks Raúl González’s record

Lionel Messi has surpassed Raúl González’s record as the top scorer in UEFA Champions League history in FC Barcelona’s game at APOEL FC.The forward scored his 72nd goal in the competition proper, group stage to final, 38 minutes in at APOEL to put Barcelona 2-0 up, diverting Rafinha’s effort past goalkeeper Urko Pardo. He subsequently added two more.

While it took Raúl 142 UEFA Champions League outings to run up his 71 goals, Messi’s appearance against APOEL was his 91st in the competition. Cristiano Ronaldo, set to face FC Basel 1893 on Wednesday with Real Madrid CF, has 70 strikes in 107 tournament matches.

Messi’s goal also ensured he overtook Raúl and Ronaldo, until tonight the joint-top European Cup scorers alongside the Argentinian. Whereas Messi and Raúl’s goals all came in the competition proper, Ronaldo found the net for Manchester United FC in the third qualifying round back in 2005. In terms of UEFA club competitions, Raúl remains out in front with 77 strikes, two ahead of Messi and four of Ronaldo.

UEFA Champions League top scorers (group stage to final)

74 Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona)
71 Raúl González (Real Madrid CF/FC Schalke 04)
70 Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United FC/Real Madrid CF)
56 Ruud van Nistelrooy (PSV Eindhoven/Manchester United FC/Real Madrid CF)
50 Thierry Henry (AS Monaco FC/Arsenal FC/FC Barcelona)
48 Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan/Chelsea FC/FC Dynamo Kyiv)
46 Filippo Inzaghi (Juventus/AC Milan)
44 Didier Drogba (Olympique de Marseille/Galatasaray A?/Chelsea FC)
42 Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus)
42 Zlatan Ibrahimovi? (AFC Ajax/Juventus/FC Internazionale Milano/FC Barcelona/AC Milan/Paris Saint-Germain)
41 Karim Benzema (Olympique Lyonnais/Real Madrid CF)
33 Fernando Morientes (Real Madrid CF/AS Monaco FC/Liverpool FC/Valencia CF)
30 Samuel Eto’o (RCD Mallorca/FC Barcelona/FC Internazionale Milano/Chelsea FC)
30 Kaká (Real Madrid CF/AC Milan)

-UEFA

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ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson

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An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.

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