Messi is already better than Benzema

Leo Messi continues to enlarge his legend in the Champions League. The goal that he scored against Maccabi Haifa, and which made it possible to balance a game that had gotten tangled up against Paris Saint-Germain, served to the Argentine broke two records in the competition and surpassed Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo. To that goal he later added an assist to Kylian Mbappé that places him a little closer to the Portuguese in the historical classification of that statistical section.

His goal in the 36th minute converted Messi is the first footballer in history to score in 18 consecutive seasons in the Champions League. The Argentine surpassed Benzema, who has scored goals in the last 17 Champions League campaigns and who will have the opportunity to equal Messi throughout this season. Cristiano Ronaldo, who is playing in the Europa League this season with Manchester United, has scored in 16 consecutive campaigns.

Messi scored his first goal in the Champions League on November 2, 2005 against Panathinaikos at the Camp Nou. Leo signed the third goal of a game that ended up winning Barcelona 5-0 and in which he also assisted Samuel Eto’o. From that first celebration, Messi has scored a total of 126 goals in the Champions League, to Cristiano Ronaldo’s 141, according to official UEFA statistics. They are the two top historical scorers in the competition, far behind Robert Lewandowski’s 89 goals and Benzema’s 86, third and fourth in that classification. With his goal against Maccabi Haifa, Messi also became the first footballer to score against 39 different teams in the Champions Leaguesurpassing Cristiano Ronaldo’s 38, with whom he was tied until this Wednesday.

The assistance he gave to Mbappé in the second goal of the PSG, who ended up beating Maccabi Haifa 1-3leaves Messi with 37 assists in the Champions League, five behind Cristiano Ronaldo, who also leads that ranking.

So far this season, Messi has scored five goals in the ten games he has played in different competitions and has provided eight assists, more than anyone at PSG. Neymar has given away seven goal passes and they are already followed at a great distance by Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, two of the Parisian team’s full-backs, with two.