By the numbers: Messi moves up appearances list

By the numbers: Messi moves up appearances list

The Barça striker surpasses Víctor Valdés and cracks the Club's all-time top five with 536 games

FC Barcelona may have fallen to Alavés on Saturday night at Camp Nou, but the game did yield a fistful of interesting stats. Here's a look at the numbers:

Lionel Messi replaced Denis Suárez at the one-hour mark in the second half to try and lift Barça to victory. He didn't, but he did make his 536th appearance, moving him past Víctor Valdés and into fifth place on the Club's all-time list of games played.

Luis Suárez also came on in the second half, giving him his 100th appearance for Barça, during which his 88 goals leave him with an astounding average of 0.88 goals per game.

Paco Alcácer and Jasper Cillessen both made their debuts with FC Barcelona on Saturday night

Neymar Jr played his first game since the Copa del Rey Final victory over Sevilla in May. He missed training camp and the pre-season while leading Brazil to the gold medal in the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

In fact, both Neymar Jr and Rafinha were recognized for their Olympic achievements in a pre-game ceremony at Camp Nou.

Alavés became the second newly promoted team to win at Camp Nou in the last 15 years. The other was Hércules, which beat Barça 2–0 at Camp Nou in the 2010/11 season.

Força Barça
Força Barça

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