Lionel Messi is performing marvelously on the soccer field. He had 53 goals from all competitions during last term. This season he has already scored 37 times for Barca. He is playing with lots of enthusiasm on the ground.

The striker broke another record by going ahead of the feat set for the goals scored during the Champions League knockout stages on Tuesday in Germany. He scored his 19th goal in matches played at business end of this tournament.

He had scored 6 against Arsenal as well as 12 others prior to Tuesday, against Real Madrid (2), Bayern Munich (2), Manchester United (2), Celtic (2), VfB Stuttgart (2), Shakhtar Donetsk (1) and Lyon (1) to score 18 times in total. This had left Leo at level – being at just 24 years of age – with Andriy Shevchenko and Raul, now in mid-30s and being on the brink of their retirement from this sport.

Messi has now 44 goals in the premier club competition of Europe. He is placed sixth in the all-time list of the tournament’s top goal scorers. Raul leads this list having 71 goals to his name. Ruud van Nistelrooy has 56 goals and Thierry Henry has 55.

Shevchenko having 48 goals and Inzaghi with 46 are also ahead of Messi. Cristiano Ronaldo is placed 10th in this list having 31 goals. Nearly half of the goals scored by Messi have come in knockout stages. This greatly describes the success of Barca in this competition during the past few years.