Lionel Messi sets record while Bayern hit nine

Lionel Messi reached another scoring milestone on Saturday by finding the net in his 19th consecutive league match for Barcelona, thus completing a run of scoring against every team in La Liga consecutively.

But the Argentinian’s goal wasn’t enough to prevent Barcelona being held 2-2 by relegation-battling Celta Vigo.

Real Madrid, however, failed to take advantage of their rivals’ slip as they were held 1-1 at Real Zaragoza later that evening.

Jose Mourinho’s side remain 13 points adrift of Barcelona.

With a 20-point lead in the Bundesliga, champions elect Bayern Munich produced a sensational display to thrash Hamburg 9-2, with four goals from Claudio Pizarro and two from Arjen Robben.

Xherdan Shaquiri and Bastian Schweinsteiger were also on target for the home side. What made Bayern’s victory all the more remarkable was that key men Franck Ribery, Mario Gomez, David Alaba, Thomas Muller and Mario Mandzukic were all rested ahead of the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final match against Juventus tomorrow. The Bavarians could have been celebrating their 23rd Bundesliga title were it not for Borussia Dortmund’s Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, who scored a late goal to give the reigning champions a 2-1 victory over Stuttgart and put Bayern’s title champagne on ice for now.

Hannover won 2-0 in Augsburg, Schalke beat Hoffenheim 3-0, Freiburg defeated Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0 and Werder Bremen drew 1-1 in Mainz after conceding the fastest goal of the season 12 seconds into the match.

In Italy, Juventus moved a step closer to a second successive Serie A title after winning 2-1 at Inter Milan on Saturday, while Edinson Cavani came off the bench to inspire Napoli to a thrilling 5-3 win at Torino to keep them in second place.

AC Milan had briefly moved second after beating Chievo 1-0 through Riccardo Montolivo.

In Holland, Ajax moved three points clear at the top of Eredivisie with a 4-1 win over Nijmegen, as second-place PSV were held 2-2 at Roda.

Vitesse are up to joint-second after beating Zwolle, while fourth-place Feyenoord are four points off the pace after losing at Heerenveen.