The Argentine forward will feature in his 100th UEFA Champions League appearance for FC Barcelona and is set to contribute to a 100th CL goal for the club
FC Barcelona travel to Rome to take on Italian giants AS Roma in their first game of the 2015-2016 UEFA Champions League season and all eyes will be on the one and only Lionel Messi who will be taking part in his 100th game in Europe’s elite competition for the Catalan giants.
Just days after the birth of his second son, Lionel Messi will celebrate his 1st Century in the Champions League and he is just 28. The forward made his debut in the competition against Shakhtar Donetsk in 2005 and has since then helped the Blaugrana’s win a whooping four Champions League crown, a period in which no other team has won the crown more than once.
Since his debut, Lionel Messi has racked up a staggering 77 goals in the tournament, making him the highest goalscorer in the history of the UEFA Champions League. He has also added 22 assists to that tally which means the player has a total of 99 goals+assists in 99 UCL games. Wow! This is ridiculously amazing given the fact that he is still just 28 years old.
The newly crowned UEFA Best Player in Europe was UCL’s top scorer last season for a record fifth time and he will take part in his 100th game of the tournament against AS Roma at the Stadio Olympico, the stadium where he got his first UEFA Champions League final goal in 2009.
After his blistering performance during the weekend against Atletico Madrid in La Liga, Lionel Messi will be aiming to score or make an assist against Roma on Wednesday which will make him the first, only and fastest player to register 100 goals+assists for a club in the history of the UEFA Champions League.
The 28-year-old has a good record in the group stages of the competition, he’s taken part in 49 UCL group stage games for Barcelona and has netted 44 times whilst providing 13 assists. Only a brave man will bet that Messi won’t score in the Roma game. The game kicks off tomorrow, Wednesday, at 8:45pm CET at the Stadio Olympico, Rome.
