Lionel Messi scored his 500th goal for Barcelona in style, catapulting Barca back into La Liga's title race at the expense of their greatest rivals, Real Madrid. His historic feat is all the more impressive considering that Gerd Muller of Bayern Munich was the last player to score 500 goals for one club. He left Bayern in 1979.
After Lionel Messi clinched a last-second victory in El Clasico on Sunday with his 500th career goal for Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo threw a fit.
Not sure whether Ronaldo was more annoyed at losing #ElClasico or the fact that Messi took the limelight again. pic.twitter.com/ZgdJerbFpq
Lionel Messi rightfully earned most of the praise after his extra time goal in Sunday’s El Clasico. But if it weren’t for goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen’s exceptional performance, Barcelona would have likely been out of the game by that point. Ter Stegen made 12 saves, the most by a Barca goalkeeper since 2003-04.
Ter Stegen vs Real Madrid mdrrr
Cadeau . pic.twitter.com/i9pTfI2YZz
There isn’t a more exhaustive match in the world than El Clasico — it consistently provides high-stakes, supercharged emotions and scintillating football from the world’s best players. It also has the distinction of pitting two clubs that loath one another in a physical, no-holds-barred and often controversial battle between international teammates.
Spain rely so heavily on drawing players from these two club that there’s always that boiling subplot to analyze and critique, especially as we approach another World Cup year.
Lionel Messi's 500th Barcelona goal was scored in the 91st minute of El Clasico to defeat Real Madrid, 3-2.
First, a note about the losers: Real Madrid were the better side for most of the game. They were more organized and more aggressive, even snatching an equalizer while playing with 10 men. It looked like Real would win it for a bit there, as they were entirely on the front foot in the latter stages of the game. But Real Madrid did not win this game. They did not win this game because they do not have Lionel Messi, and Barcelona do.
El Clasico is off to a hot start. It's 1-1 at the half via goals from Casemiro and Messi.
The Brazilian defensive midfielder opened the scoring with a rebound from a Sergio Ramos chance.
El Clasico is this weekend, and we happen to have some Real Madrid and Barcelona partisans on the staff here at The18. So we asked Bryce (a Barcelona fan) and Javier (a Real Madrid fan) to write about why the opposing team will win on Sunday.
By Bryce Badwan
Time Magazine has released its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and there is a footballer on it. It's not Messi, or Ronaldo. It's Neymar.
I agree with this. Neymar has had a great year: he won gold at the Rio Summer Olympics, got a bit part in xXx: the Return of Xander Cage, did some cool soccer stuff and kept things in perspective, if this tweet is to be believed.
In the words of Bayern Munich's Technical Director Michael Reschke, "You have to make him a monument!" — Reschke was referring to the person who originally signed Real Madrid sensation Marco Asensio. Jose Angel Sanchez, a Real Madrid board member, signed a 19-year-old Asensio back in July of 2015 for 3.5 million euros from Mallorca.
It’s been more than a month since Barcelona manager Luis Enrique announced that he would not be renewing his contract (which expires after this season). At this moment, Barcelona sit three points behind Real Madrid in La Liga (Real also have a game in hand), they’ve been dumped from the Champions League by Juventus but they could give Enrique the perfect sendoff by winning the Copa del Rey title.