On the north end of the Camp Nou, a banner was raised – in English – proudly proclaiming “GOD SAVE THE KING,” with a famous photo of Lionel Messi from Barcelona’s stunning comeback against Paris Saint-Germain last year.
📸 Picture Of The Night
🏟 Camp Nou – God Save The King 👑 pic.twitter.com/2CT4JtSY5k
— SPORF (@Sporf) March 14, 2018
Well, “The King” to the Camp Nou faithful has added to his lore when he got his 100th Champions League goal on Wednesday against Chelsea.
Messi led Barcelona in their win over Chelsea scoring first in the third minute – which was the fastest goal of his career. On the 20th minute, Messi sped down the pitch to set up Ousmane Dembele’s goal, his first for Barcelona. Messi later sealed Chelsea’s fate on the 63rd minute when he nutmegged Thibaut Courtois for his 100th CL – and 602nd overall goal of his career.
What a night for Messi!
He nutmegs Courtois AGAIN to score his second of the night and make it 3-0 for Barcelona. pic.twitter.com/jZ7obKb8NO
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) March 14, 2018
The game ended with a 3-0 victory over Chelsea. Barcelona will now advance to the quarter-finals via a 4-1 aggregate win over the English club.
Messi joins Cristiano Ronaldo in the 100 goals club with the latter having 117 to his name. The two active players who trail Messi are Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema and Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic with 53 and 48 goals respectively.
Barcelona will find out who they will face in the Champions Leauge this Friday and return to play this Sunday when they will face Atletico Bilbao in La Liga.
Chelsea, on the other hand, will face Leicester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals this Sunday as well.