L ionel Messi has scored his 400th Liga goal for Barcelona. The Argentine attacker, who overtook Telmo Zarra’s historic mark of 253 strikes to become the leading scorer in Spain’s top flight in 2014, reached this latest landmark with his goal against Eibar at Camp Nou this evening. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner netted his side's second of the evening as he slotted home a low angled finish with his left foot early in the second half against Eibar after good work from Philippe Coutinho and Luis Suarez on the edge of the box. The 31-year-old’s 400th strike came in his 15th season with Barca’s first team and in his 435th game in the competition. In Pictures | Barcelona vs Eibar | 13/01 1 /20 In Pictures | Barcelona vs Eibar | 13/01 AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images It was his 659th goal in total for the Catalan club, in just 575 competitive first-team matches.<doc-sep>Lionel Messi scored his 400th La Liga goal on Sunday, a total his coach Ernesto Valverde called "monstrous", as Barcelona terrorised Eibar to reclaim their five-point cushion at the top of the table. Messi drove the ball into the bottom corner after being teed up by Luis Suarez, who added two goals to his own tally either side of the Argentinian marking another historic record at the Camp Nou. "It's monstrous," said Valverde, after the 3-0 victory. "It's easy to say but you have to score them one after the other, it's a long-term job. "His numbers are stratospheric, incredible. He is from another galaxy." Victory saw Valverde's side restore their advantage over Atletico Madrid, who had briefly cut the gap to two points after beating Levante earlier in the day. "There is a lot of time left," Valverde said. "It is a good cushion but nothing is done yet." Real Madrid won too, beating Real Betis, to ensure Spain's big three all prevailed in the same round for only the fourth time this season. Real remain 10 points adrift of Barcelona. Messi, meanwhile, extends his own hefty lead as the division's all-time top scorer, which currently stands at 89 goals, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo, now at Juventus in Italy, owns a better goals-to-game ratio, with his 311 strikes coming in 292 matches. Messi's quadruple century arrived in his 435th. In fact, it was one of Messi's quieter nights in terms of performance and in another team it might have been Suarez or Philippe Coutinho picking up the plaudits. Suarez assisted Messi, applied a classy finish and was on the end of a scintillating team move for Barca's first. - Sparkling Coutinho display - Coutinho was the provider for that one and delivered a sparkling display to appease those doubting his future at the club. The Brazilian has endured a spell out of Valverde's preferred starting line-up but he converted a penalty against Levante in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday, and was arguably man of the match here. He alone supplied three passes in the build-up to Suarez's opener. Arthur Melo started it, playing a one-two with Coutinho and then into the feet of Sergio Busquets. Busquets pinged the ball left to Coutinho, who twice exchanged with Suarez before the Uruguayan, off balance, found the far corner. Messi's moment came in the 53rd minute and it was Suarez who started it, stealing back possession after a heavy touch from Anaitz Arbilla. He bounced it off Coutinho and found Messi, who touched and rifled in. Barca were enjoying themselves as Coutinho flicked the ball over one opponent's head and Suarez did the same through another's legs. The third goal was simple, however, Sergi Roberto taking a quick throw and freeing the scuttling Suarez. With the goalkeeper out, he looked up and chipped the ball into the net. - Griezmann fires Atletico to win - The pressure had been cranked up a notch after Antoine Griezmann's second-half penalty earned Atletico a 1-0 victory over Levante. Griezmann has now scored all of Atletico's last six goals and his latest one proved the difference in a cagey contest at the Wanda Metropolitano. "We all pull the cart in difficult moments," Griezmann said. "I cannot do anything without my team-mates." The pressure has been on Real Madrid all season but they battled to a 2-1 win over Betis for their first league victory of 2019. Luka Modric sent a thunderous shot into the top corner but Betis were in the ascendancy after Sergio Canales poked in a second-half equaliser. Marcelo had been dropped by Santiago Solari, Karim Benzema taken off with a dislocated finger and Isco remained on the bench, watching three youngsters sent on ahead of him. Ceballos, who left Betis for Madrid two years ago, was one of them. Promoted With a free-kick on the edge of the area and goalkeeper Pau Lopez leaving his left-hand corner open, Ceballos duly sent a dipping shot into the gap to snatch a dramatic win. "It was an emotional moment for him," Solari said. "A former player doing damage, football creates this kind of magic."<doc-sep>FC Barcelona forward Lionel Messi (10) celebrates his goal number four hundred at "La Liga" during the match FC Barcelona against Eibar, for the round 19 of the Liga Santander, played at Camp Nou on 13th January 2019 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Mikel Trigueros/Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images) The Argentine superstar continues to make history with his sublime goalscoring ability. Barcelona’s 3-0 win over Eibar at the weekend maintained their five-point gap over Atletico Madrid, but the main talking point was Lionel Messi’s goal as it was his 400th in La Liga. No other player has been able to achieve this and Cristiano Ronaldo is the only other player to reach 300, so it shows how far ahead he is of everyone else. What makes it even more remarkable is that he has achieved this in just 435 matches. He is showing no sign of slowing down either with 17 goals as well as 10 assists in 17 matches this season. His consistency is remarkable and practically unheard of at the top level of football. Five seasons as top scorer in Spain as well as five European Golden Shoes during a time when him and Cristiano Ronaldo were taking goalscoring to the next level backs this up. Luis Suarez is the only other player who has been able to break up that duopoly since the Portuguese star moved to Real Madrid in 2009. Focusing purely on his goalscoring is unfair on Messi because he is so much more than that. His role now is essentially that of a playmaker but he also contributes a ridiculous amount of goals. There is also his role in build-up play to consider and his creativity isn’t just limited to his sublime passing range either because he can also destabilise opposition defensive shapes through his dribbling. The 31-year-old is spearheading Barcelona’s attack this season which has seen them score 53 goals in 19 league games. Altogether Messi and Suarez have scored 31 of those goals which is the same as Sevilla and Celta Vigo who are joint second highest scorers in the league, so they are outscoring the majority of the rest of the teams in the division including Real Madrid by themselves. Messi’s importance to the team is practically indescribable and having him in the team gives Barcelona a realistic chance of achieving their aim of a European double. Three consecutive quarter-final exits in the Champions League isn’t good enough for a team of Barcelona’s calibre and they look well placed to end that this season.<doc-sep>
Messi makes history with 400th La Liga goal The Argentine has an average of 0.92 league goals per game in his illustrious career Lionel Messi has become the first player to score 400 La Liga goals after netting against Eibar on Sunday. The Argentine made it 2-0 when he netted for the Liga leaders at Camp Nou, extending his record as the highest scorer in the Spanish top flight's history. Incredibly, Messi only took 435 games to get to his 400th goal, scoring an average of 0.92 goals per game. Article continues below His record looks set to stand for many years to come, as Aritz Aduriz is the next top scorer to be currently playing in La Liga with 157 goals in 422 games. The strike makes Messi the second player to have scored 400 goals in any of Europe's top five leagues, reaching the milestone in 63 games fewer than Cristiano Ronaldo did, and he has now nearly doubled Alan Shearer's Premier League record of 260 strikes. The 31-year-old's first goal came back in 2005 against Albacete when he was just 17 years of age and was assisted by Barca and Brazil legend Ronaldinho, who scored 70 league goals for the Catalan club in 145 appearances. 400 - Lionel Messi has become the first player in @LaLigaEN history to score 400 goals. Extraordinary. pic.twitter.com/DVCNv3TXtv — OptaJose (@OptaJose) January 13, 2019 Among his 400 finishes have been 83 braces and 31 hat-tricks, helping to put him 89 goals ahead of the league's second top-scorer Ronaldo. Next on the list is Telmo Zarra, who played for Athletic Bilbao from 1940 to 1955, with 251 efforts. He is followed by Mexican Hugo Sanchez with 234 and Real Madrid legend Raul with 228. Messi's dominance has not been confined to the league though, and in all competitions he has scored 575 goals. That gives him a colossal lead over Luis Suarez, who is the second-highest active scorer for Barca with 166 tallies. Barcelona went on to win Sunday's match 3-0.