Lionel Messi reasserted his credentials as the world's greatest player as he lit up El Clasico and scored his 500th goal for Barcelona with a spectacular injury time winner at the home of Real Madrid.
The strike, his second of the match, eclipsed the contribution of his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo, and breathed new life into the Spanish title race. Barcelona are now level on points with Madrid, although they have played one extra game.
The Argentine was in scintillating form all evening and scored the visitors' opening goal to level the scores in the first half. He was also singled out for tough treatment - an elbow from Marcelo left him with a bloodied mouth, and a two-footed challenge from Sergio Ramos earned the Madrid defender a straight red card.
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"Given how often, how cynically and - in Ramos's case in particular - how dangerously Messi is fouled, it is credit to him that he keeps on drawing tackles and does not shy away," says Alistair Tweedale of the Daily Telegraph.
But it was not the fouls but his second goal of the evening that will be remembered. With the score at 2-2 and 30 seconds left on the clock Barcelona launched a counter attack through Sergio Roberto, and when Jordi Alba pulled the ball back to Messi he smashed a first-time shot into the bottom corner to make it 3-2 to Barcelona.
It was his 500th goal for Barcelona and he marked it with an iconic celebration, taking off his shirt and displaying it to the furious Real Madrid fans.
"What a way it was to reach 500 goals for his club, in what was only his 577th appearance," says Tweedale. "It was his 103rd brace, to add to an astonishing 37 hat-tricks. Messi has inspired the era of the goal-a-game striker." It was a performance "that further cemented his position as the greatest player of all time".
James Whaling of the Daily Mirror is in no doubt that Barcelona would have lost without their talisman and that he can legitimately claim to be the greatest ever. "If we were in any doubt beforehand - Lionel Messi's masterclass in the Bernabeu on Sunday evening proved once and for all he is the best player of our generation... We've all seen footage of the past greats, and as brilliant as they were, Messi is surely on another level.
"The display showed everything that is brilliant about this Argentine magician. He was kicked from pillar to post, he was elbowed flush in the face by Marcelo... But he picked himself up from the Bernabeu canvas to score twice and inspire his team to a victory which sent them top of La Liga and kept their title hopes alive."
Real Madrid fans will not agree, notes Ben Hayward of Goal.com. The Bernabeu has saluted other Barcelona stars - Ronaldinho, Andres Iniesta and Diego Maradona - but the fans cannot stand Messi.
Ahead of the game, Madrid fans delighted in the fact that Messi had failed to score in six El Clasico matches, he notes. "But they should have known better than to write off a player who had already netted more goals in the famous fixture than anyone else," says Hayward. "And given the nature of the defeat in the 92nd minute, again the supporters were in no mood to celebrate his tremendous talents... the reality is that they cannot wait to see the back of him."
