Messi’s two goals for Barcelona in a weekend win over Real Mallorca gave the maestro 76 goals for 2012 to date, beating Pele’s tally of 75 from 1958 and taking him to within nine of Gerd Mueller’s all time record total of 85 set in 1972.

But he missed a chance to close down the deficit on Mueller as the Argentinians plodded to a stalemate in a match short on inspiration or major incident.