El Clasico: Lionel Messi Scores 500th Barcelona Goal To Secure Injury-Time Victory Over Real Madrid (Photos & Video)

Chris Wright

24th, April 2017

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As was foretold in the prophecy, Lionel Messi’s 500th goal for Barcelona was enough to sink Real Madrid in the final minute of Sunday night’s El Clasico fixture and send the Catalans back to the top of La Liga, if only by the slimmest of margins.

Casemiro put Real ahead in the 28th minute before Messi scored No. 499 to level things just five minutes later after waltzing his way through the penalty area…

Ivan Rakitic then put Barca back in front in the 73rd minute before Sergio Ramos earned the 22nd red card of his career (more than Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane combined) when he went flying in on Messi in a bid to halt a dangerous counter-attack.

Now there’s a familiar sight…

James Rodriguez then appeared to rescue a point for Real in the 85th minute by scoring just a few minutes after emerging from the bench, only to be foiled by the man of the hour in the dying seconds.

With Sergi Roberto breaking from deep, Jordi Alba fed a low ball into Messi on the edge of the area which the mercurial Argentine precisely steered past Keylor Navas to bring up his truly outstanding milestone.

To say commentator Ray Hudson was enthused by the occasion is something of an understatement…

So that’s 500 goals in 577 appearances for Messi since making his senior debut in 2001, and he’s still only 29. Utterly bonkers.

Perhaps it’s fitting that he celebrated by using his alien powers to levitate his shirt…

Amazingly, according to La Liga stat aficiando Mister Chip, that was the very first time Real Madrid have ever lost to a last-minute goal at home in the league…

As for the table, Barca have gone top, level on points with Real but narrowly ahead thanks to their superior head-to-head record.

However, Luis Enrique’s side only have five matches left this campaign, whereas Los Blancos have six still to play.

Stay tuned, folks…