El Clasico: 5 best Lionel Messi performances

#2 Barcelona 3-3 Real Madrid - 10 March 2007

Messi celebrating a goal at the Bernabeu

How a 19-year-old Lionel Messi outshone the likes of Raul, Nistelrooy, Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Deco, and Casillas still feels like a fiction. The match in which Barcelona hosted Real Madrid at Camp Nou was a keenly contested affair, with both teams grabbing a point each as neither side was able to secure the winner.

In retrospect, Barcelona would have lost had it not been for Messi who produced one of the best attacking performances in El Clasico history.

The Messi moments

1. A poor clearance from Liliam Thuram meant the ball fell kindly to Ruud van Nistelrooy who gave Real Madrid the lead. However, Messi equalised when Samuel Eto’o played the ball into his path. Messi’s first touch was gold, and it took him goalbound, before slotting the ball past Iker Casillas.

2. Messi’s second goal came after Barcelona found themselves behind for the second time in the match. Oleguer was guilty of tripping Guti in the 18-yard area. Nistelrooy scored the resulting penalty to double his tally for the night. But Messi dragged Barcelona level by slamming home the rebound of Ronaldinho's shot after Casillas initially spilt it.

3. If it weren’t for Messi, things would have gone from bad to worse for Barcelona. Oleguer received his marching orders for the evening after a second bookable offence. After being a man down, Barcelona conceded from a Ramos’s header – off a delightful set-piece delivery from Guti.

Yet, it was Messi who had the final say to bring the match to 3-3, despite Madrid’s goal and man deficit in the game. Ronaldinho shrugged of Salgado’s challenge and found Messi with his pass. Messi took the ball past Miguel Torres, dribbled around Ivan Helguera, and shot low and hard to Casillas’s right. Messi’s goal was an injury-time equaliser which broke the heart of the majority of the 98000 spectators.

Rating: 9.7

Commentator’s Messi praise

This is the game that is going to be remembered as the Lionel Messi match. 19 years of age, he gets a hat-trick. This hat-trick he scores for ten-man Barcelona. You can’t write a script like this.

That wonderful left of Messi has struck again.