Lionel Messi’s been in the wars a bit over the last few days, bless him.
Unable to help his team to a second miraculous Champions League comeback of the season in midweek against Juventus, Messi finished the first half by face-planting on to the Nou Camp turf after an attempted challenge with Miralem Pjanic.
Days later, and he was also welcomed to the El Clasico with a Marcelo elbow to the mouth. The Argentine was left spitting blood after the incident, which can be seen in the video below.
#RealBarca La gomitata di #Marcelo a #Messi #ElClasico #ElClasicoNight #RealMadrid #Barcelona #LaLiga pic.twitter.com/ExetcuIWdK
— Carlo Fiaschetti⚫️🔵 (@CarloFiaschetti) April 23, 2017
Marcelo also received treatment to his elbow in the seconds after the clash, which appeared ‘completely accidental’ *winks*.
Messi, who let’s just remember looked like he was dead in the seconds after the incident, did manage to play on obviously have the last laugh.
Not only this, it appeared to wake him up, too. With Real Madrid taking the lead, Messi provided a Barcelona equaliser. As he’s done so many times in his career, the Barca number ten was able to wriggle free of defenders before calmly slotting home.
Then, of course, he went on and won the whole thing in injury time with an even better finish.
Never write the man off… even if he has just had a couple of teeth smashed down the back of his own throat.
Cristiano Ronaldo has needed two transformations but Messi 1.0 works just fine, @ConanDoherty on #ElClasico https://t.co/QMGPGafUp8
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 23, 2017
Messi doesn’t always get the credit for being tough, but he showed it in spades on Sunday night.
