Lionel Messi landed yet another remarkable feat to inspire Barcelona to a third successive win in the Champions League when Dynamo Kyiv came to town on Wednesday. The 33-year-old Argentine forward inspired the victory scoring what now known as the fastest-ever penalty goal scored in all competitions in the history of the Catalan club.
In what was a dominant start by Barca, Messi attracted a spot-kick after just five minutes when he was fouled by the visitors' Denys Popov. The five time Ballon d'Or winner made no mistake from 12 yards to increase his goal tally from the spot this season to five.
Consequently, he extended his haul in the group stage of the Champions League to 71, becoming the first player in history to do so. The Argentine international has now scored 638 goals in all competitions for Barcelona and is just five goals short of equalling the legendary Pele's record for the most goals score for a single club in football history.
As clinical as ever!
— Champions League on CBS Sports (@UCLonCBSSports) November 4, 2020
Leo Messi gives @FCBarcelona the lead from the spot pic.twitter.com/iLPzReXssX
In #BarçaDynamo, Leo #Messi scored his fastest career penalty kick goal in all competitions and the fastest penalty kick goal by a Barça player in @ChampionsLeague history (4m 53s). pic.twitter.com/iHCkmXZuIR
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) November 4, 2020
At the end of Wednesday's tie, Gerard Pique's 65th minute goal will prove to be the decider with Dynamo getting a consolation goal through Viktor Tsygankov in the 75th minute. In what could have potentially turned out to be a goal-fest at Camp Nou, the brilliance of the visitors' young goalie Ruslan Neshcheret saw him save 11 shots while keeping the likes of Lionel Messi, Ansu Fati, Antoine Griezmann and Pedri at bay.
group stage goals for Leo Messi. A #UCL record pic.twitter.com/8hw3UKWv8q
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) November 4, 2020
Meanwhile, Barca's returning goalkeeper Ter Stegen also put in a Man of the Match-worthyperformancee by making six great saves. The highlight of the bunch will undoubtedly be the saves made against Vitaliy Buyalskiy at the latter part of the first half and the one against Viktor Tsygankov in the beginning of the second period.