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| Lionel Messi moves into top 5 Barça players with most official games for the club |
It was a forgettable night at the Camp Nou on Saturday for both players and fans as FC Barcelona succumbed to a 2-1 home defeat to newcomers Deportivo Alaves to drag them out of the top three on the log.
However, despite not being able to perform any magic to save their team from the blemish of losing to a newly-promoted side at home, star men Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez both reached appearance milestones for the club despite the defeat which would be great achievements in their respective careers for the Catalan giants.
Lionel Messi has been at the club for 11 years and is already an icon for the Azulgranas. Against Alaves, the Argentina captain came on in the second half, replacing Denis Suarez, this meant he featured in his 536th official game for the FC Barcelona senior team, taking him past legendary goalkeeper Victor Valdes in the all-time appearance list. Now, Messi is the fifth most capped player in FC Barcelona’s history with 536 games to his name and he’s still 29.
Messi needs 14 games to go past Migueli and move fourth in the list, something he’ll very likely achieve this season. However, he will still need to feature in 232 games to surpass Xavi Hernandez as Barça’s most capped player in history.
Iniesta is the second most capped player, making his 595th appearances against Alaves after replacing Arda Turan in the second half, he has 55 more than Lionel Messi and two more than Puyol who is the third most capped with 593 appearances.
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| Luis Suarez reach 100 games with Barça – Image: FCB |
Luis Suarez didn’t start for Barça in the game but came on to replace Paco Alcacer in the second half to make his 100th appearance for the club since he joined in the summer of 2014. The Uruguayan has gone on to becoming one of the club’s best ever goalscorers and he’s quite more than just that. Suarez has scored a whooping 88 goals since his debut and has provided an astonishing 43 assists in the process whilst winning 8 trophies.
FC Barcelona will look to bounce back on Tuesday when they take on Scottish Champions Celtic in their first game of the 2016/2017 UEFA Champions League season.