LAST-GASP LEO
Messi rocks Real with the final kick to send Barca top
BRUISED, bloodied but not beaten, leo Messi won the Clasico for Barcelona with the last kick of an extraordinary five-goal thriller.
He ripped his shirt off and held it up to the north goal of the Santiago Bernabeu on the final whistle that came seconds after his 500th goal for Barcelona had taken them above Real at the top of la liga. even by his standards this had been a remarkable performance.
Still sporting a black eye from the Champions league exit against Juventus last week and cut early on by a flailing Marcelo elbow, Messi had a bloodied towel in his hand when he scored Barca’s first goal to cancel out Casemiro’s opener.
Ivan Rakitic then put Barcelona ahead and when Sergio Ramos was sent off for trying to scythe down Messi — who else? — Barca just had to see out time.
But James Rodriguez turned in Marcelo’s cross with four minutes left and it seemed all Messi’s blood and sweat would end in tears.
He was not to be denied, however, and firing the last bullet in the barrel he made it 3-2 and sent Barcelona top with five games left.
‘It’s his 500th goal so imagine that — scoring it in the Bernabeu in the 92nd minute,’ said coach luis enrique. ‘It was a terrible time for us to concede but then we get the goal with the last kick and there is no better time to score.’
Messi came into the game without a goal in his last six Clasicos but he was fired up and drew an early yellow card.
Despite Messi taking the game to Real Madrid it was the home side who scored first. Toni Kroos’ corner was cleared by Gerard Pique but straight to Marcelo. He dinked it over the top for Ramos, whose shot came back off a post for Casemiro to score.
Messi hit back five minutes later, taking a pass from Ivan Rakitic, dropping a shoulder and darting past Dani Carvajal before driving his shot low under Keylor Navas’ dive.
Casemiro brought down Messi and it should have been a second yellow. Somehow he escaped punishment.
The tempo never dropped in a second half when both Marc Andre ter Stegen and Navas made some excellent saves.
The latter could do nothing to stop Rakitic’s perfect shot on 73 minutes, however.
All Barcelona had to do now was hold on and that was made a lot easier when Ramos flew into Messi with both feet off the ground and was shown a straight red.
He argued with Pique as he left the pitch and it was the Barcelona defender who then wasted a glorious chance to make it three. That miss looked costly when James’ goal made it 2-2 but Messi had the last, thrilling word.