Lionel Messi has added to his Champions League career scoring record to the La Liga mark he set last weekend, getting his 28th Barcelona hat trick in a 4-0 win Tuesday night at APOEL Nicosia.
Messi, 27, scored in the 38th, 58th and 87th minutes to give him 74 goals in 91 matches in Europe’s top club competition and 17 goals in 17 games overall this season.
Raul Gonzalez scored 71 goals in 142 Champions League matches for Real Madrid and Schalke, and current Real star Cristiano has 70 goals entering Wednesday’s game at Basel. The hat trick was Messi’s fifth in the Champions League.
He scored three goals Saturday against Sevilla to raise his Spanish League total to 253 goals in 289 matches, two goals more than Athletic Bilbao’s Telmo Zarra scored in 271 La Liga games from 1940-55.
Luis Suarez had opened the scoring in Cyprus with his first competitive goal for Barcelona since he was acquired from Liverpool in July.
Barcelona (4-1) already had clinched advancement from Group F along with Paris Saint-Germain (4-0-1), which beat Ajax 3-1 as Edinson Cavani scored twice and Zlatan Ibrahimovic got his first club goal for nearly three months.
