It was a bittersweet Sunday evening at the Camp Nou for Lionel Messi who achieved another milestone but at the expense of his Barcelona team that slipped to a 2-1 embarrassing defeat to Valencia.
The Argentina skipper scored his 500th career goal for both club and country on a night Barcelona stumbled to their fourth successive defeat in all competitions.
An own goal by Ivan Rakitic put Valencia ahead after 27 minutes and Santi Mina added a second just before halftime to stun the Barca supporters.
Messi however stepped up in the 64th minute to pull one back for the host – but his strike wasn’t enough to stop the defending champions from an eminent defeat.
Earlier, Atletico eased to a 3-0 home win over struggling Granada to go level with Barcelona on points and one more than Real.
Luis Enrique’s problems started from the 2-2 draw at Villarreal before the international break in March – which was followed by defeats against Real Madrid, Real Sociedad and Atletico Madrid.
Messi’s failure to score in his last five games – his longest drought for the Catalans in six years, meant he had to wait for about 500 minutes of action before achieving that landmark.
The left-footed forward scored his first senior goal during Barca’s 2-0 La Liga win over Albacete in May 2005, while he opened his Argentina account in 3-2 friendly defeat to Croatia in March 2006.
The 500 goals have come in 632 appearances across all competitions for club and country.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo achieved that feat last September.
