Messi ‘the best player in history’
Lionel Messi scored his 500th career goal for Barcelona to give the Catalan club a dramatic 3-2 win in injury time against 10-man Real Madrid in El Clasico yesterday, leaving the Spanish league title race wide open.
Messi netted his milestone goal - his second of the night - with a low left-foot shot from inside the area after a cross by Jordi Alba two minutes into stoppage time.
That goal left the two rivals level at the top on 75 points. Barcelona leads on the head-to-head tiebreaker but Madrid has six games left, one more than Barcelona.
It was the second consecutive win by Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, coming after a 4-0 rout last season that put Madrid in crisis and eventually led to the replacement of coach Rafa Benitez by Zinedine Zidane.
This year’s victory could keep Madrid from winning the league title for the first time since 2012, and give the Catalan club its third straight La Liga trophy.
‘‘We can’t be happy,’’ Zidane said. ‘‘When you don’t put the game away, things like this can happen. We are disappointed because we didn’t deserve to lose.’’
It was another outstanding performance by Messi, who played part of the game with a bloodied mouth after colliding with Madrid left back Marcelo’s elbow.
‘‘He is the best player in history,’’ Barcelona coach Luis Enrique said of Messi. ‘‘He makes the difference.’’ Messi’s winner came after Sergi Roberto made a great run from Barcelona’s defence, leading to Alba’s low pass across the area as Messi came charging to one-touch the ball into the corner past the diving Keylor Navas.
Messi’s first goal came after he got past Luka Modric and Dani Carvajal with a run inside the area after picking up a pass by Ivan Rakitic outside the area.
It was a thrilling match with the teams attacking from the start and giving both goalkeepers plenty of work.
Casemiro had put the hosts ahead from close range after Sergio Ramos struck the post in the 28th. After equalizing five minutes later, Messi also helped set up Barcelona’s go-ahead goal by Rakitic in the 73rd, a powerful left-footed shot from outside the area.
Ramos was sent off with a straight red card in the 77th after a foul on Messi.
Despite that, Madrid still found the strength to equalise in the 85th with substitute James Rodriguez. He redirected a cross by Marcelo only three minutes after he had entered the match to replace Karim Benzema.
‘‘We weren’t smart after we equalized,’’ Zidane said. ‘‘We thought we could score the third goal, but it’s dangerous to press up front when you are playing with 10 men.’’
‘‘It was a match between two teams that went for the victory,’’ Enrique said. ‘‘Either one could have won it.’’