FC Barcelona 1-0 Atletico Madrid: 5 Talking Points

#1 Another game, another milestone for Lionel Messi

Three games, three free kicks from Lionel Messi

This gentleman does things on a football field that just makes you wonder how lucky you are to see him live in action! Against Atletico Madrid, Lionel Messi scored the winner through a sumptuous free-kick to register his 24th league goal of the season.

In doing so, Messi netted his 600th career goal in 747 appearances for club and country. This was his 539th goal for FC Barcelona and his 28th assault on goal against Atletico Madrid. Yesterday, Cristiano Ronaldo notched up his 300th La Liga goal and today it was the turn of the great man to write one more record to his name in the history books.

Coming back to his goal, this was his third straight freekick which has nestled against the back of the net. Girona, Las Palmas and now Atletico Madrid have been the victims of Messi's dead ball skills. No one has scored more freekick goals than Messi this season (5).

The three free kicks in as many games have been starkly different from another. Tonight's freekick was a traditional one dinked over the wall and hitting the top corner. Against Las Palmas, the Argentine decided to go for the near post and against Girona, he went under the wall. As if stopping him in open play was next to impossible, this little genius has now started to score for fun from dead ball situations.

🐐 Lionel Messi - 600 goals for club and country504 from inside the area96 from outside the area496 with his left foot78 with his right foot24 with his head2 with other77 penalties39 direct free-kicks118 braces38 hat-tricks pic.twitter.com/ndBqDZWDJF

— Sky Bet (@SkyBet) March 4, 2018