El Clasico, as expected, was an unbelievably frenetic affair, that forced our heart and mind to be on the verge of exploding till the very end. Barcelona 3-2 Real Madrid, this was the tally by the end of Sunday night and burst open the La Liga title race once again.
However, Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo, too was a clash worth witnessing where the Argentine clearly had an upper hand over his arch-rival. Messi was out down to the ground while attempting a header during the initial moments of this, ever so classic, El Clasico. From this moment, Messi was a changed man, at least on the ground, and his anger reflected clearly on his play.
From equalizing in the 33rd minute, from facing ‘Men-To-Man’ marking instead of ‘Man-To-Man’ to being lucky after Sergio Ramos pounced on him, in the second half, this little guy was the ‘Lone Wolf’ playing with Real Madrid’s defense and scored the winning goal in extra time. This took the El Clasico tally to 3-2 in Barcelona’s favor and Messi also became the first player to score 500 goals for the Catalans in all competitions.
However, there was one man who was not happy with the result and started cribbing about it, and he was none other than Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese isn’t the one who hides his emotions. Cristiano Ronaldo wears his heart on his sleeve and has been seen scolding his teammates every now and then, despite Sergio Ramos being paid to do that. His immense frustration after Lionel Messi scored the winning and 500th goal for Barca on Sunday, during the El Clasico, was clear for all to see.
The goal itself was a masterpiece. Sergi Roberto, Barcelona’s full-back, collected the ball on the edge of Barca’s own penalty area and ran past Real’s Marcelo, who was miles out of his position. Roberto was able to carry the ball unopposed into Madrid’s half before passing to Andre Gomes who passed to Jordi Alba and by the time Zidane’s men could have realized it, he cut it back to Lionel Messi, who struck for glory in flip seconds and through minimalistic space.
Here is the El Classico decider and Cristiano Ronaldo’s reaction to it.
Incredible last minute #Messi #Messi500 #ElClasico pic.twitter.com/BW3cRNyQ1Q
— Satyabrat Samal (@itsSatyaS) April 24, 2017
As it can be clearly seen, Marcelo did allow Roberto to enter Real Madrid’s half and that is what infuriated Cristiano Ronaldo. He started shouting at his team saying, “You should have fouled him.”
Watch his reaction once again.
"You should have fouled him!" https://t.co/jy2FntqVue
— GMS (@rob_gms) April 25, 2017
This means that Ronaldo was suggested that if Marcelo didn’t have the chance to tackle him, he could have lunged at him to prevent the ball entering the other side of the ground.
While this strategy, in itself, cannot be called a good-natured one, it could have helped in stopping Lionel Messi from scoring the winning goal.