Lionel Messi’s clutch record broken by Atlético Madrid striker

For years Lionel Messi came up with crucial late goals for Barcelona but his LaLiga record has now been beaten by Alexander Sorloth.

Barcelona’s poor run of form continued on Saturday, losing at home to Atlético Madrid to fall behind Diego Simeone’s side in the LaLiga standings. The 2-1 home defeat was sealed with a dramatic late winner from Atléti striker Alexander Sorloth, who came off the bench and scored in the sixth minute of injury time.

With that goal, Sorloth takes a LaLiga record from a Barcelona legend.

Lionel Messi scored 474 goals in the Spanish top flight and held the record for late winners, scoring four game-winning goals beyond the 90th minute. With his strike on Saturday, against Barcelona, Sorloth now has five.

“It took Sorloth to win here,” said Atlético Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak after the game, reflecting on his team’s poor record in Barcelona. “It’s not easy to come on and do what he does. He always does his job and scores the goals we need. He’s the striker we’ve been looking for.”

Barcelona slump continues in LaLiga

After making a red-hot start to the 2024/25 season, Barcelona’s form has tailed off in recent weeks. Things peaked back in October with a 4-0 demolition of Real Madrid, a statement win at the Santiago Bernabeu, but they have slipped to third in the table since then.

Hansi Flick’s team have now won only one of their last seven LaLiga games, suffering chastening home defeats to La Palmas and Leganes in that spell. With star forward Lamine Yamal out injured and his team seemingly low on confidence, Flick admitted that the Spanish league’s Christmas break could be vital.

The German boss explained: “Now it’s a break and I think everyone needs this break. After the break we will train and we will show how strong we are.”

“For us now, we are all disappointed about this defeat because we played fantastic. Now we will celebrate Christmas, start training on 29 December and focus on what we can do in the next half of the season.”