Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 9y

Barcelona's Lionel Messi 'happy' with Champions League record

Barcelona attacker Lionel Messi was delighted to break another record before deflecting attention from his achievement after a second hat trick in four days saw him become the leading scorer in Champions League history.

Just last week Messi was suggesting while on international duty with Argentina that he was not 100 percent happy at Barca.

But he seemed in his element when scoring three times in Saturday's 5-1 win over Sevilla, thereby breaking Telmo Zarra's 60-year record to become La Liga's all-time record goalscorer.

The 27-year-old followed that feat by notching another treble in Tuesday's 4-0 Champions League win over APOEL.

Having gone into the game level at the top of the scoring charts with Real Madrid legend Raul, Messi moved ahead before half-time by cleverly diverting Rafinha's shot past goalkeeper Urko Pardo to put his side 2-0 ahead.

After the break he dinked the ball cleverly to the net from a Dani Alves pass before finally knocking home a Pedro Rodriguez cross from close range for his third-right footed finish, to move to 74 goals in 92 games in the competition.

Speaking to UEFA after the final whistle, Messi said he was content to have completed another personal achievement, but the main thing had been winning an important game for the team.

"I am very happy with the record in this very nice competition, but the most important thing was the team's victory," Messi said. "Today was a very important game for us, for the three points, we were able to achieve that which is what was really important."

Barca were already qualified for the knockout stages, but despite the win remain in second place in Group F, and must beat current leaders Paris Saint-Germain in their final game on Dec. 10, to top the final standings and secure a seeding for the last-16.

Messi said he expected a tough challenge from the Ligue 1 champions, who beat Barca 3-2 in the reverse fixture in September.

"It will be a difficult game, we lost at their pitch," he said. "They are a very good team, the teams know each other, they are very strong, getting better all the time. But we will be at home and try and play a great game to finish top of the group."

Some poor domestic results have seen Barca slip behind in-form La Liga leaders Real Madrid, while off-field issues at the Camp Nou have also reportedly been a factor in Messi's apparent willingness to consider a transfer next summer.

Asked to sum up how his side's 2014-15 season was going so far, Messi was both diplomatic and ambitious with his answer.

"We try and do what we can to achieve the objectives we set from the start of the year, which is to win everything," he added. "That is what Barcelona always needs to try and do. We will try and stay on this path."

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