ARGENTINA 2-1 BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA World Cup, group stage, June 15, 2014
« I’d had to wait eight years for my second World Cup goal. We wanted to have a great tournament and started off with a win against Bosnia, and I scored our second goal. »
ESPANYOL 0-1 BARCELONA LaLiga, October 16, 2004
« I came on as a substitute for Deco against our local rivals Espanyol back in 2004. I was definitely a little nervous as I was about to come onto the field for my debut. It was a very important moment for me, something I’d desperately wanted for a long time, and I was maybe a bit impatient! »
BARCELONA 7-1 BAYER LEVERKUSEN Champions League, last 16, March 7, 2012
« What an incredible night! I’m not sure I could ever rank my goals over one another – I honestly don’t believe that any strike was prettier than the other. I was just delighted to get five and, more importantly, that the team won so convincingly. I didn’t realise at the time that I was the first player to score five goals in a Champions League game. »
NIGERIA 0-1 ARGENTINA Olympics, final, August 23, 2008
« The Olympics are very important, not only for the opportunity to win a medal for your country, but also the experience of being able to take part in an amazing global event and live in the Olympic village with athletes from so many different sports. It was incredible – a complete tournament for us. Yes, we won the semi-final 3-0 against Brazil – a great team who were also playing well – but we also overcame the Netherlands and Nigeria. »
BARCELONA 5-1 SEVILLA La Liga, November 22, 2014
It’s an amazing feeling to be the highest ever scorer in La Liga, a league with so many spectacular players in its history and players who have achieved so much. It’s a great accomplishment for me. I didn’t have any kind of celebration planned for it – and I never think about what will happen after I’ve scored a goal. It’s best that the celebrations all come naturally, like the play on the field.
BARCELONA 3-0 BAYERN MUNICH Champions League, semi-final, May 6, 2015
As I approached [Jerome] Boateng, all I was thinking about was just trying to get past him to get close to the goal – no different to any other time, during any other match, that I’ve had the ball and an opponent has been in front of me. We had a spectacular coach in Luis Enrique and he helped us to win a very complicated match. We really got in the mood for that game and played at our best level, yet we were all still tranquil and calm.
BARCELONA 2-0 ALBACETE La Liga, May 1, 2005
« My first Barça goal! I was still at the stage where I was just enjoying playing at the Camp Nou and being able to play in the first team with fantastic players. I wasn’t really thinking about scoring goals, but I knew if there was a chance for me to score, I wouldn’t be nervous. Everything happened so fast. Ronaldinho flicked the ball over the defence and I chipped it over the keeper. It was a really nice moment, especially as the players – my new team-mates – came to celebrate it with me. »
BARCELONA 3-3 REAL MADRID La Liga, March 10, 2007
« It’s a beautiful feeling to get three goals against Real Madrid – it’s always a fixture everybody in the world watches, and this was the first time I’d achieved it. To score a hat-trick was incredible and it was even more special because it came in a Clasico. »
BARCELONA 5-2 GETAFE Copa del Rey, semi-final, April 18, 2007
« For this goal against Getafe, I picked the ball up near the halfway line and found a lot of space between the defenders. When I received possession, I didn’t think of scoring. I just wanted the open spaces to continue appearing as I moved towards the penalty area. I kept finding them as I kept advancing, and I didn’t start thinking I might score until I actually took the shot. I’ve always measured my goals by the importance of them, not for the beauty. »
ARGENTINA 6-0 SERBIA & MONTENEGRO World Cup, group stage, June 16, 2006
« It was a beautiful day due to the significance of the occasion – it was the World Cup and it was Argentina’s second match of the tournament. I was on the bench for the first game against Ivory Coast, but came on for the last 15 minutes against Serbia & Montenegro and scored our sixth goal of the game. Beautiful. »
JUVENTUS 1-3 BARCELONA Champions League, Final, June 6, 2015
« We didn’t realise the significance of what we’d done in winning the Treble. It’s particularly special because it’s such a difficult task to win against the very best teams. It’s such a tough competition – you can be playing well, but then in one game you are suddenly out of the Champions League. »
REAL MADRID 2-6 BARCELONA La Liga, May 2, 2009
« This celebration was after our fifth goal of the game – my second. It was a particularly special night, given the way we won in the Bernabeu. I’d played in a new position – the ‘false nine’. It was a plan that Pep Guardiola had come up with especially for this match in order for us to be our most effective. »
BARCELONA 2-0 MANCHESTER UNITED Champions League, final, May 27, 2009
« It was hard to imagine that I was going to score with my head with [Rio] Ferdinand standing near me, but I didn’t really have a marker – the ball came into the centre and I was there to meet it. In the moments that the ball was in the air from Xavi’s cross, I pictured scoring this goal and I thank God it happened. It was such an important goal in every sense: for the team, for the way the final was turning in our favour and for me, too. It’s still one of my favourite goals. »
REAL MADRID 2-3 BARCELONA La Liga, April 23, 2017
« It was a perfect night, one where everything went right, where I got everything that I wanted. I scored two great goals against Real Madrid inside the Bernabeu, with the second coming in the last minute to win us the game. And then you have the fact it was my 500th goal for Barcelona, too! I couldn’t have asked for anything more. If I had not scored in that moment, we would have said goodbye to the league title there and then. It was a goal that gave us the drive to carry on fighting to try to win the league. »
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