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#4. Clothesline
Lionel Messi and the Clasicos is a love affair that is almost as good as his and his wife, Antonella’s. With 25 goals in the clashes, he is the top scorer of the much-heated and much-hyped encounter. However, there once was a time when he went on a barren run even in the Clasicos.
Indeed, such was his barren run that he went 6 Clasicos without scoring a goal – his longest drought against Madrid in his illustrious career. The magnitude of his drought could be best understood in the light of the fact that rival Cristiano Ronaldo went from two Ballon d’Ors to four Ballon d’Ors before Messi could break the infamous streak.
And it happened in a potentially season-defining encounter last April. A win for Real Madrid would virtually win them the title then and there itself, but a victory for Barcelona would put Madrid under the pressure of winning every game to win the league by the end of the season.
Real Madrid were trailing when James Rodriguez came in and equalised for the Whites with only a few minutes to go. The clock was ticking and as injury time was reaching its final stages, Madrid decided to go for the win. But after losing the possession deep in Barcelona’s half, Sergi Roberto bombed forward unchallenged.
The result of this move was a Messi goal in the final minute of injury time – which all but guaranteed a Barca win – and he ran off to celebrate by taking off his shirt and showing his name on its back to the crowd at the Bernabeu.
However, in the end, it didn’t matter since Real Madrid won the league and Barca ended with only the Copa del Rey – rendering this celebration futile and, hence, giving us an epic meme.
