Barcelona: Lionel Messi praised Barcelona`s focus after he scored four goals in a 5-1 demolition of Osasuna and became the youngest-ever player to rack up 200 Liga strikes.
Much of the pre-match talk circulated around Wednesday night`s Copa del Rey clash with Real Madrid, but despite that distraction on the horizon, the Blaugrana maintained their concentration with a ruthless display aided by the first-half dismissal of Arribas.
"The important thing was to get this game going," he told reporters after the game.
"There was so much talk about the clasico before the game, but first we had to play Osasuna and focus on this game."
Messi`s record-breaking haul came after Cristiano Ronaldo brought up his 300th club goal with a hat-trick in Real Madrid`s 4-0 win over Getafe.
Barca assistant Jordi Roura was asked whether he thought the Portuguese`s efforts had motivated Messi`s latest goalscoring spree, but instead preferred to focus on the Argentine`s continued brilliance.
"I do not know if Messi was more motivated by Ronaldo`s performance this morning, but I don`t think he needs anybody else to motivate him," he added.
"I have run out of adjectives for him, when you see him do amazing things every day you get used to it, but when you step back and realise what he actually does then you see that he has no limit at all."
Goal.com
First Published: Monday, January 28, 2013, 09:47