With a wave of his magic wand, Lionel Messi scored his 700th career goal to the raucous applause of his adoring fans but alas, Barcelona’s title hopes took another dent against Atletico Madrid as all they could manage was merely a draw.
Barcelona’s wizard netted a delightfully saucy second-half penalty whilst his team ran out of rabbits to pull out of the hat as they could only draw 2-2 at Camp Nou on Tuesday evening after two Saul Niguez spot kicks twice pegged them back.
Messi has taken 862 appearances in all to reach his 700th milestone but Barca came short by a whisker to return to the top of LaLiga and now trail Real Madrid by a point having played a game more than Los Blancos.
Barca duly opened the scoring only 12 minutes after kick-off when Diego Costa unintentionally sliced Messi’s corner kick past Jan Oblak from close range into his own goal.
Costa’s costly fumble was just the beginning of his nightmare when five minutes later he missed a penalty that was awarded to Los Blancos after Arturo Vidal fouled Yannick Carrasco. His spot kick was saved by Marc-Andre Ter Stegen only for VAR to rule the goalkeeper was off his line. The subsequent re-take of the penalty was reprieved by Saul.
Messi came close to making it 2-1 in the 22nd minute when his shot hit the post but he made sure his ball found the back of the net in the 50th minute when Felipe tripped Nelson Semedo and the forward coolly chipped his penalty down the middle.
Unfortunately for the Blaugrana, Saul again rose to the occasion when he scored his second penalty spot kick after 62 minutes after Carrasco was brought down, which gave third-placed Atletico a point.
It was certainly a night of mixed moods and conflicting outcomes for Lionel Messi.