Lionel Messi could score 100th European goal against Sporting Club

Lionel Messi could score his 100th goal in European competitions on Wednesday. The Argentine crackhas 96 goals in the Champions League and three more in the European Super Cup. His extraordinary numbers, however, are bettered by Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 112 (109 in the Champions League and three in the Super Cup). But while Messi's goals have come in 118 games, the Madrid man's have come in 24 more (142). 

The Barça No.10, who will play his 593rd Barça game and overtake Carles Puyol in Lisbon, knows what it's like to score against Sporting (he scored his 13th Champions League goal there in 2008) opened his European account for Barça in 2005 at Camp Nou. On that day he scored against Panathinaikos (5-0) in the group stages. 

SCORE, SCORE, SCORE...

Since then, he's not stopped scoring in the Champions League and dedicating the goals to his grandma Celia, who always supported his dream to play football but never saw him triumph. He's scored braces, hat-tricks, four goals and even five goals, against Bayer Leverkusen in 2012 in a 7-1 win at Camp Nou. The four goals came against Arsenal in 2010. 

Messi has scored in 59 of his 118 European games. And only in three games did his goal serve for nothing: Celtic (2-1), PSG (3-2) and Manchester City (3-1). The rest have ended in wins (49) or draws (7). In other words: Barça have won 83 percent of the games which Messi has scored in, drawn 11.8 percent and lost just 5.1 percent. 

54 GOALS AT Camp Nou

Obviously, Camp Nou is where he's scored most goals: 54 of the 99. Barça's home is followed by Celtic Park (5) and the GSP Stadium and Eden (3). As for rivals, he's scored the most against Arsenal (9 goals). Also: Milan and Celtic (8), Bayer Leverkusen (7) and Ajax and Manchester City (6). In total, the Argentine has scored against 28 teams from 16 countries.