The Barcelona skipper reached two new milestones in Spanish domestic league with his brace against Deportivo Alaves.

Lionel Messi set the ball rolling for Barcelona's La Liga title defense by striking twice in their opening league game against Alaves. The Argentine’s first came in the 64th-minute via a brilliantly hit low free-kick and got on the end of a pass by Luis Suarez to get his second of the night.

In-between the Barcelona No. 10’s exhibition, last winter's signing for the Blaugrana, Philippe Coutinho, continued to justify his acquisition from Liverpool by getting the other goal in Saturday night's encounter.

Lionel Messi's first strike took the number of goals scored by Barcelona in the history of La Liga to 6,000. His club, as a result, became the second team after Real Madrid (currently boasts of 6041 goals) to reach such a goal tally.

In retrospect, the 31-year-old forward also scored the club's 5,000th landmark domestic league goal in game against Racing Santander back in 2009. 

Messi's feat also meant that he is the first player since the inception of La Liga to score in 15 successive seasons. Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos could match this achievement should he manage to get a goal against Getafe on Sunday or in subsequent games.