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Messi guides Barca to Supercopa glory
The Argentine talisman stuns Real Madrid once again
Messi guides Barca to Supercopa glory | Lionel Messi produced yet another memorable performance as his brilliant brace helped Barcelona triumph 5-4 on aggregate over bitter rivals Real Madrid to lift the Spanish Super Cup at Camp Nou.
With the score tied at 2-2 following the first leg in Madrid on Sunday, tonight’s thrilling second leg appeared to be heading for yet another stalemate when Messi broke the deadlock two minutes from the full-time whistle.
Andres Iniesta had opened the scoring for reigning Spanish champions Barca 15 minutes after kick-off but Real stormed back level through Cristiano Ronaldo merely five minutes later.
At the stroke of half time, Messi stepped up to hand his teammates a critical 2-1 advantage that appeared difficult for the visitors to overcome for most of the second half.
However, with eight minutes left to play, Karim Benzema compensated for his somewhat wasteful finishing in the first leg by silencing the home crowd with a massive equalizer.
Jose Mourinho’s men made it clear that their hosts would need something special to break away for the third time in the match and as always, that special moment was left for Messi to seize.
Recently acquired Cesc Fabregas started a move down the right flank, which ended up with Adriano sending in a highly precise cross that Messi converted with finesse in the final stages of the match.
Having scored in the first leg as well, Messi now had three to his individual tally and as a team, Barca had beaten the nearly impeccable Iker Casillas for the fifth time over the course of the two-legged tie.
Naturally, there were celebrations across Catalunya as Pep Guardiola’s men were closing in on yet another win over Mourinho’s Madristas but there was one final moment of drama yet to come from Los Blancos.
As the referee was preparing to blow the whistle after nearly four minutes of stoppage time, Marcelo lunged in dangerously at former Arsenal midfielder Fabregas and was immediately shown the red.
In the aftermath of the incident, chaos ensued as Real’s Mesut Ozil and Barca’s David Villa were also sent off for dissent while Mourinho himself was not too far from getting himself in trouble either.
At the end of the day, the latest edition of El Clasico will go down in the books as a highly entertaining version of a story that everyone has heard quite a bit in recent years: Leo Messi emerging as the difference maker between two of the world’s strongest squads.
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As always, Messi only plays good with the Barcelona, where you were when your national team was needing you???
It baffles me what exactly officiating staffs see in barcelona ahead of other teams. Their always falling attitude is always backed by this so called referees. I think fifa need to intervene on the way and manner barca matches are officiated
Poor Madrid… Jose gives them hopes of winning and then Barca fcks all of the hopes !!! Ur nevr gonna win against us. We are the best team in the WORLD !! and u shud knw that Its Barca all the way !! :D
Haha!thr thy madrid go again.by ths time u should b able 2 acept dfeat cz th best team won. f*** u nd yr insecurities