Lionel Messi hits one of the greatest free kicks ever… misses

Remember the days in the school yard when hitting the bar was better than scoring?

With no net to emphasise the effect of either your strike or your grand achievement, scoring a goal almost felt pointless. No-one remembered it, there were so many of them and all it meant was that someone had to go chasing after the ball again anyway. Cracking the bar though? That was a different kettle of fish. The sound, the wobble, the rebound and the what might have beens. The howls from your mates, some of them impressed and some just delighted it didn't go in - everyone was happy. And everyone talked about it afterwards - not the goals, the crossbar effort. So this is the exact same as Lionel Messi... There's been plenty of decent free kicks in football down through the years. Roberto Carlos knew how to wrap his toes around a size 5. Ronaldo. Portsmouth. Obviously. Take your pick of David Beckham's efforts. This was pretty alright from Hakan Çalhanoğlu. Juninho Pernambucano has some sort of sorcery shit going on in his boots. And Lionel Messi's on Tuesday night would have - would have - been right up there with the best of them if it wasn't for about an inch and a half. Barcelona drew with Atletico Madrid at the Nou Camp 1-1 in the Copa del Rey - enough to put them through 3-2 on aggregate - but they survived a bit of a scare. With both Sergi Roberto and Luis Suarez seeing red for two bookable offences, the Catalan outfit finished the tie with nine men - to Atletico's 10. Kevin Gameiro hit the equaliser for the visitors but he missed a penalty just three minutes beforehand that might've made things different. None of it would've mattered if Messi's outrageous free kick had gone in though. IF. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exOvDJ63NRI As strikes go, this was pretty damn spectacular and even the man himself looked pissed off that it didn't drop in. He's Lionel Messi, for God's sake. he knows when the ball should go in or not. Still, at least more people will talk about it now that he missed. Right? Right?