madrid lionel messi scored a spectacular double the same night he equalled xavi hernandezs appearance record for barcelona the argentinian inspiring his team to a 41 win over huesca on mondaymessi tied xavis 767 games in all competitions for barca and marked yet another milestone with a brilliant brace a curling effort in the first half flying in off the crossbar at camp nou before a late shot nestled in the cornerhes the most important man in the history of barca said coach ronald koeman even better that hes still with usantoine griezmann had earlier followed suit with another impressive shot into the top corner before huesca pulled one back rafa mir converting a doubtful penalty on the stroke of halftimebut messi helped barca pull away sending in a cross for oscar mingueza to head in and then scoring his second as the catalans moved to within four points of league leaders atletico madridmessis performance had all the key elements of the 33yearolds genius in a game that celebrated his longevity he showed his class with perhaps his best goal of the season his creativity with an assist and his consistency by making it 13 consecutive campaigns that he has reached 20 la liga goalshes so decisive said huescas mir they play with one man extrahuesca stay bottom four points adrift of safety while barcelona continue their own excellent formthey have now managed 11 wins and a draw from their last 12 matches putting them within sight of atletico who they still have to play at home in maymessi should break xavis record on sunday against real sociedad and the club toasted his achievement with a video that included tributes from numerous current and former teammates including gerard pique sergio busquets luis suarez neymar andres iniesta carlos puyol and xavi himselfyoure still breaking records said suarez i think this one says a lot about you as a player and what you represent for barcelonawe think youre extraordinary something from another planet said neymarkoeman played frenkie de jong again in the centre of a back three but he was replaced in the second half by ronald araujo whose return from injury should also be a major boost to barca during the runinmessi rose to the occasion in the 13th minute he darted back to receive a pass from busquets and flicked his first touch around the sliding jorge pulido the ball was still spinning when he tapped it forward and whipped a shot that flew off the crossbar and inbarcelona were dominant and jordi alba thrashed a shot against the crossbar before griezmann made it two played into space by pedri and driving another thundering effort into the same corner messi had picked outde jong poked a cross onto bar and huesca were given hope at the end of the half when a scintillating counterattack was rewarded with a mysterious penalty mir failing to connect with ferreiros cross but given a spotkick anyway seemingly for a late challenge from marcandre ter