Messi tonight scored his 500th club goal for Barcelona in what proved to be the winner against Real Madrid.
The Argentinian maestro set another record this evening when he netted twice against Real Madrid in El Clasico, taking his total goal tally for Barcelona to 500. Not only did he set that record but the 500th goal came in the dying moments of the game, to seal a 3-2 win in front of the furious Madrid fans at the Bernabeu.
In a match that saw some world class saves from the two goalkeepers, in Keylor Navas and Marc-Andre ter Stegen, there were also plenty of goals on show in front of a worldwide audience, hoping for the title race to be blown wide open once again in the run in to the end of the season.
The two teams were going blow for blow towards the end of what had been a fascinating El Clasico, when Messi ran on to a Jordi Alba pass and buried his effort in the bottom corner. This came after earlier goals from Messi himself, Rakitic, James and Casemiro had the game tied at 2-2. Sergio Ramos had also been sent off for a wild challenge earlier in the second half.
Barcelona are now level on points with Real Madrid but the latter have a game in hand, while the Catalan club hold a superior head-to-head record having drawn 1-1 earlier in the season at the Nou Camp. Given that game in hand, Real Madrid are still odds on favourites for the title at 4/7 but after that morale boosting win over their rivals, Barcelona are still not out of it at odds of 13/8.
