After hitting a Ronaldinho-esque free kick in Barcelona’s 6-1 victory over Girona last Saturday, Lionel Messi scored his fourth direct free kick of the La Liga season to give his side an early 1-0 lead over Las Palmas on Thursday.

Messi’s rocket from 20 yards out — a free kick he earned himself after a spectacular run at the heart of the Las Palmas defense — flew into the top corner, leaving Las Palmas goalkeeper Leandro Chichizola fanning at air.

Since the horrific tragedy of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14, we’ve come to learn that two students — 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff and 15-year-old Anthony Borges — shared a deep love for the sport of soccer. 

Here’s a five-day period so Luis Suarez that even Luis Suarez would call it cliché. Last Tuesday, the Uruguayan striker was booked in the 76th minute of Barcelona’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea. Suarez was given the yellow directly after Lionel Messi’s equalizer for berating the linesman.

In the 77th minute of PSG’s routine 3-0 victory over Marseille Sunday night, a seemingly innocuous moment led to Neymar remaining on the ground while play continued around him. 10 seconds later, with Neymar still writhing in agony and in clear discomfort, PSG played the ball out so their Brazilian star could receive treatment. 

Neymar was then stretchered off the field while crying inconsolably. For many, the world’s most expensive player had clearly just suffered a serious injury (perhaps a broken ankle), calling into question his participation at the World Cup.

Lionel Messi is the second-highest goalscorer in Champions League history, trailing only Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi has scored 98 Champions League goals in his career so far, and we were wondering which countries he has done the most damage against. So, we went through all of Messi's goals and figured out the countries that house the clubs Messi has scored the most goals against.

Like a good band, Barcelona played all the hits in their 6-1 demolition of Girona on Saturday, surely a treat for anyone seeing them live for the first time (I hate you Bryce I hate you so much).

They opened with Lionel Messi assisting Luis Suarez:

The Lionel Messi goal vs Chelsea gave Barcelona a vital away goal after the first leg in the Champions League Round of 16 as the teams played to a 1-1 draw on Tuesday at Stamford Bridge. It was his first goal in nine career matches against the Blues. But it was all about that assist from Andres Iniesta, three seconds that perfectly summed up the Spaniard’s brilliance.