Messi: Win more important than record

Barcelona's record-breaking striker Lionel Messi insists Sunday's 2-1 La Liga win at Real Betis was more important than his amazing individual achievement.

The Argentinean opened the scoring at the Benito Villamarin in the 16th minute to equal Gerd Muller's record of 85 goals in a calendar year, before edging ahead four minutes from time with his second, after Martin Ruben Castro had fired Betis level six minutes before the break.

Nonetheless, despite completing one of the most astonishing feats in football in recent times, Messi insists the only thing that mattered was that Barca had picked up the three points.

"The record is great for what it means," he said on the club's official website. "But the most important thing is that the team won and that we maintained the distance with the teams behind us [in La Liga].

"When the year starts the objective is to win it all with the team, personal records are secondary.

"Betis are a good team and it was an important victory because it's really hard to win here. We went ahead early and Betis created chances, but we also could have scored more goals.

"I'll try to score more goals to make it more difficult for the next player that tries to break it," he joked.

The 25-year-old's tremendous feat now makes it quite unlikely that he will miss out on winning the Ballon d'Or, although he believes one of his team-mates would be a deserving recipient of the award.

"If Iniesta wins it, it will be totally deserved and it would make me very happy," Messi added.

"It's a title for the whole team."

Sunday's victory also meant Barca maintained their five-point lead over second-placed Atletico Madrid, who recorded a thumping 6-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna.