Coach Kiko Sittin successfully passed his first test with Barcelona, and the team beat Granada 1-0 on Sunday in a match that saw the recording of many numbers that brought to mind the Spanish coach Pep Guardiola's period.
Messi settled yesterday's confrontation with a goal in the 76th minute, and gave his team a victory that kept him in the lead with 43 points, ahead of the goal difference from the rivals Real Madrid.
The match saw the Catalan club record the best number of passes during this season with 1005 passes, including 921 successful passes.
This number is the third highest pass rate for Barcelona since the launch of Opta Statistics in the 2005/06 season.
The record for successful passes remains in the name of the team that Guardiola led with 962 successful passes recorded in the Levante match in the 2010/2011 season.
Also, the Catalan club recorded a possession rate of 82.6% yesterday, which was the failure of former coaches Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde.