Barcelona’s record breaking 60 pass move before Messi goal
The record for the most passes before a goal belongs to Barcelona
It was the Copa del Rey final in 2021 when Barcelona put on an absolute masterclass to defeat Athletic Bilbao.
It wasn’t until the final half an hour that Barcelona really drove the knife in Athletic with a flurry of four goals in the space of just 12 minutes. This brilliant passing record breaker was one of them.
It was the fourth goal when Barcelona played a mind-boggling 60 passes uninterrupted before Alba and Messi’s endgame rippled the net in Seville. It was also the umpteen-millionth reminder of that Alba and Messi telepathic connection, finding each other within the blink of a second to hammer the final nail in the coffin.
Before that, the record was Manchester City’s. The Premier League champions provided Pep Guardiola with the ‘perfect goal’ in their 2–1 Carabao Cup win at West Brom in 2017. They strung together a staggering 52 passes before Ilkay Gundogan’s shot was saved by Ben Foster, allowing Leroy Sane to fire in the first goal of the night.
Every City player touched the ball at least twice in the build-up. Infact, Foster’s save was the first touch of any West Brom player in the match, after two minutes and 27 seconds.
As GOAL reported, ‘although this was a Carabao Cup match, the move leading up to City’s goal contained more passes than in any Premier League game since the start of the 2010–11 season. That’s 7431 goals.’
In 2014, Tottenham’s Nacer Chadli capped off a 48-pass move before scoring in a 4–0 victory against QPR. At the time, Spurs manager, Mauricio Pochettino was well known for encouraging a possession-based style of play. Every member of the Spurs XI completed a pass in the build-up to the goal with Etienne Capoue completing 14 passes and Jan Vertonghen, 10.
Another goal of note was Arsenal’s incredible 35 pass move for Ozil’s finish against Newscastle in 2020. Every single Arsenal player touched the ball at least once before Alexandre Lacazette laid it into the German’s path. It was ten passes more than any other Premier League goal scored up to that point in the season.
Arsenal fans acknowledged Pep Guardiola’s huge impact on Mikel Arteta’s first managerial position. In fact ESPN went as far as posting this on their twitter page.
