Golden Shoe 2016-17: Top Goalscorers in Europe, Updated Standings on February 20

Lionel Messi scored both goals in Barcelona's 2-1 win over Leganes on Sunday to leapfrog Edinson Cavani in the Golden Shoe standings, and he shares the lead with Roma's Edin Dzeko and Juventus striker Gonzalo Higuain.

The Premier League took a break for the fifth round of the FA Cup, and so the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Diego Costa had no opportunity to add to their tallies, while Cavani failed to find the net in Paris Saint-Germain's 0-0 draw with Toulouse having scored in his each of his last seven matches in all competitions.

Here are the standings:

Position	Player	Team	Goals x Factor	Points
T1	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	19 x 2.0	38.0
T1	Edin Dzeko	Roma	19 x 2.0	38.0
T1	Gonzalo Higuain	Juventus	19 x 2.0	38.0
4	Edinson Cavani	Paris Saint-Germain	25 x 1.5	37.5
5	Luis Suarez	Barcelona	18 x 2.0	36.0
T6	Alexis Sanchez	Arsenal	17 x 2.0	34.0
T6	Andrea Belotti	Torino	17 x 2.0	34.0
T6	Robert Lewandowski	Bayern Munich	17 x 2.0	34.0
T6	Bas Dost	Sporting CP	17 x 2.0	34.0
T6	Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang	Borussia Dortmund	17 x 2.0	34.0

Rules: Each European league is given a difficulty constant between one and two, and that constant is multiplied by a player's goal tally to achieve their total number of points.

For example, Ligue 1's constant is 1.5, while La Liga's is two, so Messi's goals are worth more points than Cavani's.

Messi Rescues Barca

Messi found the net after just four minutes when he converted a sublime cross from Luis Suarez at the back post, which suggested the Blaugrana had put to bed the problems that beset them in their 4-0 Champions League humiliation at the hands of PSG in midweek.

Alex Caparros/Getty Images

However, Barca failed to build on their strong start, and it was only two excellent stops from Marc-Andre ter Stegen that kept Leganes at bay.

The visitors eventually equalised in the 71st minute through Unai Lopez, but in the 88th minute, Neymar was tripped by Martin Mantovani in the area, and Messi dispatched the resulting penalty into the top corner.

As noted by Spanish football writers Dermot Corrigan and Kieran Canning, the forward took little joy in salvaging three points, however:

Indeed, the win merely papers over the cracks that have emerged at the Camp Nou over the last year, with the team no longer the dominant force it once was.

Messi has consistently dug his team out of holes, though, and will likely continue to do so for the remainder of the season—he could be in contention to win the Golden Shoe despite their struggles.

Serie A Duo Keep the Pace

Dzeko and Higuain also continued their own excellent campaigns for Roma and Juve, respectively.

The former opened the scoring in a 4-1 thrashing of Torino with a low effort into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.

Meanwhile, Higuain netted in the Bianconeri's 4-1 win over Palermo, dinking the ball over the goalkeeper after a sweeping team move that started with Gianluigi Buffon.

As Squawka Football demonstrated, both players have been in sensational form of late:

Of the two, Higuain is the player you'd expect to maintain his form until the end of the season given his track record and the team he plays for.

Most of Dzeko's goals in Serie A this season have come in the first 10 games or the last five—he scored just three times in the league between October 26 and January 22—though if he can avoid a similarly dry spell between now and May, he may also be in with a chance of picking up the Golden Shoe.