Barça star Messi is one away from his 350th goal in La Liga

Once again Leo Messi is the centre of attention. And exclusively. Without Luis Suarez (injured) and Neymar (at Paris Saint-Germain) the Argentine is expected to produce the goods on Sunday night against Real Betis in the opening game of the La Liga season.

And if he scores, it will be his 350th goal in La Liga. Since he overtook the 251 scored by Athletic Club legend Telmo Zarra in November 2014, the Argentine has been making history with each goal he scores as the competition's top goal scorer.

Messi's first goal in La Liga was on May 1, 2005, at Camp Nou against Albacete (2-0). He was 17 years, 10 months and eight days old. The last he scored was on May 21, 2017, also at Camp Nou, but aged 29 years, 10 months and 26 days.

Of Messi's 349 goals in the league, 200 have been at home and 149 away. The teams which he has inflicted the most damage on are Sevilla (23), Atlético Madrid (22) and Osasuna and Valencia (21 each).

Other teams he's scored more than 10 against are: Deportivo (17), Real Madrid and Rayo Vallecano (16), Levante and Espanyol (15), Athletic (13), Getafe, Betis, Racing de Santander and Real Sociedad (12) and Villarreal, Almería, Mallorca, Málaga and Granada (11).

Meanwhile, of the 349 goals, 46 have been penalties and 19 free kicks. The rest have been scored in open play.

His best scoring season was in 2011-12, when he scored 50, breaking all records. In the following campaign, he managed 46. On four occasions he has been the season's top scorer, the Pichichi: 2009-10, 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2016-17.

Valencia, Espanyol and Osasuna have all seen him score four times in one game, the first two in the 2011-12 season and the latter in the 2012-13 season.

As for hat-tricks, he has scored two trebles against: Real Madrid, Valencia, Atlético Madrid, Rayo Vallecano, Osasuna, Málaga, Granada and Deportivo.

Tenerife, Zaragoza, Almería, Levante, Espanyol and Sevilla have all seen him score a hat-trick once.