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Lionel Messi: How Barcelona star was inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo vs Liverpool - Gullit
LIONEL MESSI’s stunning free-kick against Liverpool - and Barcelona’s 3-0 win over the Reds - was inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo.
That’s the claim of Dutch footballing great Ruud Gullit.
Barcelona put one foot in the Champions League final in Madrid on June 1 thanks to their win at the Nou Camp last night.
Luis Suarez opened the scoring against his former club on 26 minutes with a cute finish from Jordi Alba’s excellent cross.
While Liverpool responded well, they could not take their opportunities and were made to pay when Lionel Messi made it 2-0 with 15 minutes remaining.
After Suarez had struck the crossbar having been picked out in space in the box by Messi, the Argentine was on hand to finish the rebound
And Messi scored his 600th Barca goal just seven minutes later with a jaw-dropping 30-yard free-kick that swerved around the Liverpool wall and into Alisson’s top right-hand corner, though the Brazilian was left with no chance.
Messi’s 600th club goal came just days after Ronaldo hit the landmark himself as Juventus drew 1-1 away at Inter Milan last Saturday in Serie A.
It has taken 31-year-old Messi a staggering 118 games less to achieve the feat against his former Real Madrid rival and came 14 years to the day he scored his very first goal for Barca against Albacete.
Now he says, ‘Okay, this is big.’
And ex-PSV and AC Milan hero Gullit acknowledged the desperation of Messi to win what would be his fifth Champions League.
That would tie him on the same number of successes as Portuguese star Ronaldo, who has won the competition four times in the last five years having won it the last three years in a row with Real Madrid.
He joined Juve in the summer in an £88m deal, ending his and Messi’s nine-year La Liga rivalry, primarily with the aim of helping the Italian giants to end their European drought having gone since 1996 without winning the competition.
Offering his response to Messi’s second goal of the night, Gullit told beIN Sports: “Sometimes you just have to clap. Just clap. This is unbelievable.
Messi was phenomenal against Liverpool says Ferdinand
“We were saying with Ronaldo when he turned around this game against Atletico Madrid he could have been the best player.
“But I think Messi is on a mission because I think Ronaldo was on a mission to do it with Juventus.
“Now he says, ‘Okay, this is big.’ This is big. This is important for him.”
Ronaldo is the Champions League’s all-time top scorer on 126 goals but Messi’s brace takes him to 112, with his rival also three years older than him.