Barcelona visit Atlético de Madrid this Sunday night and will play at the Wanda Metropolitano and the Argentine master will be hoping it's third time lucky as he searches for his first LaLiga goal at the ground. He scored a whopping eight times at Atleti's old Vicente Calderon Stadium but is yet to score at the stadium in the league since Los Rojiblancos moved to their new home back in 2017.
Both LaLiga meetings between the two sides at the Wanda Metropolitano since that move finished in 1-1 draws, with Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele scoring the goals for Barça. Now Messi will be keen to get in on the action and there's no reason to believe he can't, considering he has eight LaLiga Santander goals already this season and is scoring at a rate of one goal every 79 minutes of domestic action.
Messi does, however, at least know what it feels like to see his name on the scoreboard at the Wanda. He was amongst the scorers when Barcelona won the Copa del Rey final there against Sevilla FC in 2018, netting once in the 5-0 victory along with Philippe Coutinho, Andrés Iniesta and a brace from Luis Suárez.
If he does score this weekend to bag his first league goal there, he'll have scored in every top-flight stadium in Spain. His most fertile hunting ground over the years has been Sevilla's Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan (12 goals) and Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu (11 goals), proving time and time again that he shines on the biggest stages and on the biggest occasions.
( With inputs from IANS )