Barcelona travelled to Real Valladolid intent on getting back to winning ways after dropping two points to Valencia this past weekend.
The Blaugrana sat sixth after being leap-frogged by Sevilla earlier in the evening and were hoping to regain fifth spot courtesy of a strong away performance and three points.
Valladolid were in the relegation zone, sitting in 18th. Victory for them would have seen them climb to as high as tenth given the congested nature of the division this season.
Ronald Koeman started with a new shape, with three centre-backs named in the starting XI in Ronald Araujo, Oscar Mingueza and Clement Lenglet.
It worked. Barcelona took the lead inside the first half-hour, opening the scoring in the 22nd minute through centre-back Lenglet. Lionel Messi dropped a perfect ball into the area for him to meet with his head and send the Blaugrana one up.
The French defender paid tribute to Moussa Wague with his celebration. Wague is a Barcelona defender who shattered his knee in a potentially career-ending injury on loan at PAOK.
Messi was again pivotal for their second goal. This time he played a cute ball to create space for Sergino Dest down the right flank, who centred for Martin Braithwaite to finish smartly.
The Argentine was rewarded with a goal of his own as the game entered its final stages. Pedri, who’s exhibited a remarkable connection with Messi in his performances this season, played through his captain clean inside the area.
Messi proceeded to arrow a lethal finish past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net, breaking Pele‘s record of the most goals scored for a single club. Messi has now scored 644 for Barcelona.
There was reportedly a private jet waiting for Messi to whisk him away for a brief Christmas break as Koeman has given the players four days off. He’ll be sure to return to Catalonia intent on helping his club climb the league table.
