Messi's first goal at Cornellà-El Prat

We pick out a selection of facts related with the 1-0 win away to Espanyol:

• Leo Messi scored his first ever goal at Cornellà-El Prat, meaning that the only place in the first division where he has yet to find the net is Elche.

• The Argentinian has scored 17 goals in his last 12 matches, getting at least one goal in every one of those apart from the 1-0 loss at Valladolid.

• His penalty at Cornellà-El Prat takes his overall tally for the first team up to 349 goals.

• Mascherano (16), Piqué (15) and Alba (15) won a total of 46 balls on Saturday. Espanyol’s Javi López (14) led the home team in this category.

• Pinto has kept four consecutive clean sheets in games he has started, in addition to the last 20 minutes against Celta, where he also went unbeaten. In fact, he has only conceded one goal in his last seven starts.

• It was eight years since Barça won twice in a row away to Espanyol. The last case of this were the 1-0 and 2-1 wins in the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons.

• Both games with Espanyol this season have ended in 1-0 wins for FC Barcelona. The only other time both derbies have ended with the same scoreline was 2002/03, when Barça won both matches 2-0.

• Jordi Alba was booked at Espanyol, his fifth yellow card of the season, and so he’ll be suspended for the game with Betis at the Camp Nou.