Messi Nets 500 Barcelona Goals; Tops El Clasico with 15

Madrid’s Sergio Ramos stayed true to form, receiving a straight red card for a reckless two-footed tackle on Messi – his second-successive season being sent off in an El Clasico. “I don’t regret it”, the Frenchman told Real’s official website.

“He is the best player for me in history and I have seen a lot of football”, said Barcelona coach Luis Enrique. “I think he’s the best ever because of the talent and the unbelievable performances he’s showing every week”. They’re a great side and it doesn’t matter who lines up for them. They lost 2-1 to Valencia who had scored twice in the first nine minutes at the Mestalla while Stevan Jovetic’s injury-time strike saw Sevilla seal all three points in a 2-1 win at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium when La Liga resumed in January following the winter break.

Barcelona talisman Lionel Messi once again lived up to his reputation as the greatest footballer of his generation by inspiring the Catalans to a 3-2 victory over Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday night.

The German dived low to his left to turn global teammate Toni Kroos’s effort behind before diverting Karim Benzema’s goalbound header to safety with his outstretched foot.

But ter Stegen, who has won nine caps for his country, downplayed his own performance, instead praising the character shown by his team.

“Leo’s 500th goal had to be special, just like he is”, Barcelona defender Gerard Pique said.

Sanchis also claimed that an elbow from Madrid left-back Marcelo early in the game, which knocked Messi to the floor and drew blood from his mouth, had been a “movement of protection”.

“These games are hard here and there were chances for both teams, but in the end we got the victor in added time to leave very happy, it couldn’t be any other way”.

Can Luis Enrique sign off with a domestic double? “But we beat Barcelona and why can’t we do the same to Madrid?”. But this was followed by a 3-0 aggregate loss to Juventus in the quarterfinals.

“That they’ve hurt us is logical in any game”.

“We still depend on ourselves”. “It gave us a boost of confidence going into the end of the season, but we will need to be very consistent in this final stretch”. It will be hard as always.

The two sides are level on 75 points, but Barcelona sit top by virtue of having the better head-to-head record from the two games with Real.