On 10th March 2007, a 19 year old Leo Messi announced himself to the world by scoring his first ever hat-trick for FC Barcelona. The hat-trick came in the most important fixture in Spanish football, the El Classico. The Camp Nou was in full attendance and Barca fans were expecting another masterclass by the Brazillian magician Ronaldinho.
Madrid opens the scoring
Things did not go as planned for the Blaugrana when an attack by Los Blancos saw Gonzalo Higuain play a cross from the left flank which hit the Barca defender Thuram. The ball fell to Ruud van Nistelrooy outside the box who fired it past Victor Valdes to give Madrid the lead.
Messi replies back
The first goal for Barca came when on an attack Deco received the ball just outside the box and passed it back to Eto. Eto saw Messi all alone on the right edge of the box and slid it through to him taking Madrid defenders out of the equation. Messi coolly finished it in the bottom left corner not giving Casillas enough time to close him down.
Madrid takes the lead back!
The second goal for Madrid came in a similar situation to Messi’s, only that Guti did not get a chance to finish and was tripped inside the box. Ruud van Nistelrooy took it and sent Valdes the wrong way, regaining the lead for Madrid.
Messi capitalizes on Ronaldinho’s effort
The second goal for Messi and Barca was more or less created by the then no.10 Ronaldinho. He received the call on the right edge of the box from Eto and then danced past two defenders into the box to take a shot. Iker Casillas managed to make the save but to his horror, the ball fell for La Pulga who smashed a volley into the centre of the goal.
Ramos heads it in
Just when Camp Nou thought Barca was back in the game, Los Blanoc struck them again. A cross from the right flank of the pitch met Ramos’s head, who outjumped Puyol and deflected the ball into the net of Victor Valdes.
Messi crushes galactico hearts
After the goal of Sergio Ramos everyone in the stadium thought that might well be it and Barca will not recover from that. Messi had a fantastic first half but was kept relatively quiet by the men in white in the second half. It was all going according to plan for Fabio Capello’s side until Messi received a through ball from Ronaldinho and sprung into life. He went past two defenders and into the box. Sergio Ramos tried to block the shot and save his earlier efforts from going to waste but he was too late. Messi fired it past Iker Casillas in the last minute, saving Barca from a defeat at home.
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