Barcelona coach Luis Enrique reveled in turning the tables on bitter rivals Real Madrid as Lionel Messi struck deep in stoppage-time to edge a thrilling El Clasico 3-2 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday.
Messi’s second goal of the night was his 500th for Barcelona and it took the Catalan side to the top of La Liga.
“He is the best player for me in history and I have seen a lot of football,” Enrique said. “In modern football when everyone is tactically and physically better he still makes the difference. The fact he has scored his 500th goal shows all of us as Barca fans are lucky to have him identified with the club.”
Photo: AP
The timing of Messi’s strike also saw Barca gain revenge for Sergio Ramos’ stoppage-time equalizer in a 1-1 draw when the sides last met at the Camp Nou in December last year.
“It is marvelous for us to win in the 92nd minute. It is something that is normally more a characteristic of our rivals, but we like to do it too,” Enrique said.
Barca lead at the top of the table thanks to their better head-to-head record, but Real Madrid still have the advantage as they have a game in hand.
“To score in the 92nd minute is a huge confidence boost,” said Enrique, who is to leave the club at the end of the season.
However, he and Barca captain Andres Iniesta called on Messi, whose contract expires at the end of next season, not to follow him in leaving the Camp Nou.
“Barca is an incredible club with many years of history, but without doubt an important part of that history is Leo Messi,” Enrique said.
“I think the great thing about Leo is that he continues to surprise,” Iniesta said. “After so many years he is still decisive. It is an honor and a blessing for the club to have him.”
By contrast, Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane was left to lament his side’s adventurous nature in conceding in stoppage-time after being reduced to 10 men.
Messi had canceled out Casemiro’s opener before halftime, but Barca looked well on the road to victory when Ivan Rakitic’s stunning effort put the visitors 2-1 in front, before Madrid captain Ramos was sent off for a wild lunge on Messi.
However, Madrid rallied when a man down as substitute James Rodriguez fired home an equalizer four minutes from fulltime.
“Drawing the game with 10 men, to press high up the field is dangerous and we paid for that,” Zidane said. “I can’t criticize the players for anything though. We gave our all, but we didn’t manage to get the three points. We didn’t deserve to lose, but that is football.”
Madrid now need to take at least 16 points from their final six La Liga games to be guaranteed the title.
“There will be much more of a title race, but it is still in our own hands,” Zidane said.
South Korean giants T1, led by “Faker,” won their fifth League of Legends (LoL) world championship crown in London on Saturday, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) in a thrilling final. The teams were locked at 2-2 at a packed O2 arena, but T1 clinched game five to make it back-to-back titles after nearly four hours of tense action. China’s BLG started strongly, taking the first game before T1 struck back to level. The Chinese team pulled ahead again at 2-1 only for their opponents to hit back again and go on to take the decider. Faker, who won the Most
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Monday notched up their first win in the doubles group stage of the WTA Finals in Riyadh to keep their semi-final hopes alive, while Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova were aiming to record their first victory after press time last night. Third seeds Hsieh and Mertens came back from a disheartening opening-day loss to Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez to defeat top seeds Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the women’s doubles world No. 3 and 4 respectively. The 6-1, 6-3 victory at King Saud University Indoor Arena
Amber Glenn overcame a fall and her own doubts to win a maiden Grand Prix figure skating title on Saturday at the Grand Prix de France. The American skater had the lead from Friday’s short program. That and the support of the crowd got her through a tough free skate in which she fell on a triple flip and put a hand onto the ice to steady herself on two other jumps. “I didn’t feel that great out there today, but I really tried, and the audience really got me through that last half when I was doubting myself,” Glenn
WORLD SERIES: ‘The individuals that were involved in that last night was a very small segment of the east Los Angeles community,’ the Los Angeles county sheriff said Rowdy crowds took to the streets of Los Angeles after the LA Dodgers won the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series, setting a city bus on fire, breaking into stores and lighting fireworks. A dozen arrests were reported by police on Thursday, but officials said that most fans celebrated peacefully. Video showed revelers throwing objects at police in downtown LA as sirens blared and officers told them to leave the area on Wednesday night after the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the MLB World Series at Giants Stadium in New York. Another video showed someone standing atop