MADRID: Barcelona magician Lionel Messi says breaking Pele's record for goals scored in a single calendar year matters little to him compared to helping his team to collective success.

The little Argentine scored his 72nd and 73rd goals of 2012 in the 5-0 win over Rayo Vallecano this morning, bringing him within touching distance of Pele and German's Gerd Muller's historic tallies of 75 and 85 respectively.

"Breaking Pele's record is the least I'm worried about," said Messi. "We won at a difficult ground, and that was the most important thing."

With the two this morning, Messi has now also scored 301 goals from 422 games for his country and club.

The 25-year-old will be collecting his Golden Boot tomorrow, after he finished last season as top scorer in Europe.

"I want to thank my teammates, without them I wouldn't have been able to win the prize," said Messi.

The other scorers for Barca this morning were David Villa, Xavi and Cesc Fabregas.

Fabregas believes this win was their finest display of the season.

"This was the best game of the season," he said. "We are really happy with the excellent work we produced tonight in an intense encounter.

"We played really well in the second half. We knew we were going to suffer in front of the Rayo supporters, but it was a real party after our second goal, when we imposed ourselves.

Striker Villa continued his comeback from a broken leg by opening the scoring with a well-taken strike, and was quick to announce his gratitude at getting the opportunity to play.

"I'm really happy to play 60, 65 minutes, get those under my belt and to have helped with a goal - that's important for a striker."

- mD