Barcelona on Sunday locked horns with Girona at the La Liga 2018 and the match ended up with a draw by 2-2 at Camp Nou. Despite the draw, Lionel Messi had something to cheer about. Messi set the record for making the most Spanish League appearances by a non-Spanish player on Sunday. By now, the Argentine has appeared 423 times in the La Liga and thereby overtook former teammate Dani Alves. Lionel Messi gave a great start to the team by scoring a goal in the 19th minute. Lionel Messi scores a hat-trick. 

Cristhian Stuani from Girona scored a goal in the 45th minute and gave a respite to the team. He scored another goal in the 51st minute and got a lead for the team. It was Gerard Pique who scored an equalizer in the 63rd minute and rescued the 10-man squad after Clement Lenglet was shown a red card in the 35th minute.

The red card did not go down well with Barca coach Ernesto Valverde as he questioned the red card decision. “It’s the first sending-off where I’ve seen the player who received the foul apologised. I suppose VAR will do it justice but I have the sensation it wasn’t a sending-off; there may have been an impact but I don’t think it was aggressive at all. It’s a foul by the opponent,” he said while appearing for the post-match press conference. He also went on to say that the VAR needs to be used in a correct way.

Talking about the La Liga table 2018, Barcelona leads the La Liga table with 13 points. The team so far has played five matches out of which they have won four with one match being ended up with a draw.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 24, 2018 04:24 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).