Barcelona vs Valencia. Spanish La Liga.
Camp Nou.
Lionel Messi matches Pele's record for Santos; Barcelona held 2-2 by Valencia as pressure grows on Ronald Koeman; Luis Suarez also finds the net for Atletico Madrid; Bayern Munich go top of Bundesliga with victory
Sunday 20 December 2020 07:11, UK
Lionel Messi equalled Pele's record of 643 goals for a single club after scoring for Barcelona in a 2-2 draw with Valencia on Saturday.
The Argentina forward netted a milestone goal with a diving header just before half-time - moments after missing a penalty - to cancel out Mouctar Diakhaby's 29th-minute opener.
Barcelona then went ahead through Ronald Araujo but Maxi Gomez earned Valencia a point.
Messi went close with several late efforts but Ronald Koeman's side failed to find a winner and his star player had to settle for matching rather than surpassing Pele's Santos mark for now.
Barcelona are languishing fifth in the top-flight table but could yet be overhauled by sixth-placed Sevilla who have two games in hand on the Catalan giants.
Diakhaby capitalised on awful Barcelona defending to head in a corner that put Valencia into an early lead.
The hosts could not force their way back into the contest during a frustrating first half, only to be handed a golden chance to level with a penalty.
Messi missing the penalty was the last thing on anyone's mind, especially with Pele's record in his sights.
But although the Argentina stalwart fluffed his lines he was still able to ride out that blow, quickly converting Jordi Alba's deflected cross as the ball stayed alive after his missed spot-kick.
Barcelona thought they were on course for victory when Araujo's acrobatics seized a 2-1 advantage with little more than half an hour to play.
But then up popped Gomez to seal the draw, heaping yet more misery on Barcelona and Koeman - and taking the shine off Messi's latest landmark day.
Elsewhere, former Barcelona forward Luis Suarez was back among the goals to help Atletico Madrid beat Elche 3-1.
The victory moved Atleti to 29 points from 12 games, three clear of second-placed Real Sociedad and Real Madrid.
Uruguay striker Suarez, who recently had a spell on the sidelines after contracting coronavirus, gave Atletico the lead in the 41st minute as he got the slightest touch on a low cross from Kieran Trippier to score for the first time since early November.
Suarez then slid in to knock home another from a delightful low pass by Yannick Carrasco in the 58th minute for his ninth goal of the season, taking him joint top of the scoring charts alongside Celta Vigo's Iago Aspas and Real Sociedad's Mikel Oyarzabal.
Elche got back into the game with a header from Lucas Boye in the 64th minute following a well-worked corner routine, becoming the first side to score against Atletico at the Wanda Metropolitano since the first game of the season.
Boye nearly found an equaliser when he swivelled to shoot inside the box but Atletico 'keeper Jan Oblak got across to tip the ball around the near post.
The hosts soon sealed the points, though, when substitute Diego Costa went to ground to earn a debatable penalty and then lashed home from the spot in the 80th minute.
Elche's 40-year-old striker Nino then came off the bench to try and help his side get something from the game and almost scored but saw his header cleared off the line.
Real Sociedad were beaten for the second game in succession by Levante, falling 2-1 to Jorge de Frutos' late winner.
Alexander Isak put the San Sebastian side ahead midway through the first half but Roger Marti levelled shortly before the half-hour mark.
De Frutos' late winner then lifted Levante up to 14th and out of the relegation zone courtesy of a second win from three games.
Villarreal cemented fourth place with a comfortable 3-1 win at bottom side Osasuna, who ended with 10 men.
Gerard Moreno fired the visitors ahead after seven minutes, before Fernando Nino doubled the lead on the half-hour - by which point Aridane Umpierrez had already been sent off for Osasuna.
Roberto Torres reduced the arrears from the penalty spot with 20 minutes to go but, as they pressed for an equaliser, Moreno struck again with four minutes to go.
Robert Lewandowski's last-minute winner lifted Bayern Munich top of the Bundesliga with a 2-1 win at previous leaders Bayer Leverkusen.
Patrick Schick put the hosts ahead inside a quarter of an hour with a superb volley from a corner, but two errors from defender Jonathan Tah cost his side.
First he jumped into his goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky to give Lewandowski a tap-in moments before the break, and his heavy touch in the 94th minute then allowed the striker to fire in a last-minute winner.
RB Leipzig dropped off the pace with a surprise home stalemate against Cologne, despite registering 19 shots.
The hosts enjoyed 64 per cent of possession and gave up only one shot on target, but could not find a way through a defence which had conceded 21 goals in their previous 12 games this season.
Werder Bremen struck in the final minute through Eren Dinkci's goal to give them a 1-0 win at Mainz and lift them up to 12th.
Schalke's woes continued with a 1-0 home defeat to third-bottom Arminia Bielefeld leaving the hosts six points off their visitors.
Fabian Klos' goal seven minutes after half-time was enough to give Arminia their third win of the season, and leave Schalke still looking for their first victory after 13 attempts.
Eintracht Frankfurt won 2-0 at Augsburg thanks to Raphael Framberger's own goal and a late Stefan Ilsanker second.
Juventus moved within a point of the league leaders with a 4-0 thrashing of Parma, with Cristiano Ronaldo netting a goal in either half.
Dejan Kulusevski put the visitors ahead midway through the opening half against his former club, before Ronaldo doubled the advantage three minutes later when heading in Alvaro Morata's cross.
Three minutes into the second period Ronaldo doubled his tally from Aaron Ramsey's pass into the box before Morata added a late fourth.
A pair of penalties dropped Verona off the pace for Europe with Dusan Vlahovic's spot-kick cancelling out Miguel Veloso's early goal from 12 yards in a 1-1 draw at Fiorentina.
Verona, who have won only one of their last four games, now sit three points off the final Europa League spot and are seventh.
Sampdoria piled the misery on bottom side Crotone with a 3-1 win to lift themselves into the top half.
Mikkel Damsgaard put the hosts ahead before Jakub Jankto doubled their advantage nine minutes before the break, but Crotone gave themselves a lifeline when Simeon Nwankwo scored from the spot in added time.
Veteran forward Fabio Quagliarella restored the hosts' two-goal advantage shortly after the hour mark, to leave Sampdoria 10th.
Lyon produced a four-goal haul to thrash Nice 4-1 and go top of Ligue 1.
Goals from Memphis Depay and Tino Kadewere put the visitors firmly in control before Amine Gouiri pulled a goal back with Nice's only shot on target just before half-time.
Karl Toko Ekambi put Lyon three goals to the good on the hour before Houssem Aouar added their fourth to leapfrog Lille and PSG.
Marseille missed the chance to keep within two points of the leaders, drawing 1-1 at home to lowly Reims.
They trailed after 20 minutes to Yuto Nagatomo's own goal, but levelled just before the break when Florian Thauvin fired home, and remain fourth.
Metz moved into the top half thanks to a 2-0 win over Lens, who are now only a point ahead of their hosts.
Opa Nguette put Metz ahead after half an hour, before Farid Boulaya sealed three points in the fourth minute of second-half injury time.
