Thankfully, Lionel Messi was able to play on.
He and his Barcelona teammates were eyeing another miraculous comeback on Wednesday night, with Juventus arriving at the Camp Nou with a three goal lead after the first leg in Turin.
The first half had been a frustrating one for Barca. Juve, unlike PSG a few weeks ago, had been defensively solid offering very little in the way of clear cut chances for the home side to exploit.
With only a couple of minutes of the half to play, Messi’s attempts to challenge Miralem Pjanić in the air resulted in him planting face first into the turf. As the footage of the incident shows, it certainly could have been nasty.
https://twitter.com/SlXLACK/status/854783777440231424
The Argentine did however manage to get back to his feet and continue, by which time Twitter was full of unsympathetic tweets about his tumble.
That Messi face plant was majestic
— Αlεc Τrεhαrηε (@_lec93) April 19, 2017
"Messi, he glides across that pitch." #barca pic.twitter.com/XeLsjlPzn5
— Tim Brannigan (@tim_brannigan) April 19, 2017
https://twitter.com/WCPRANGERS/status/854782421480472576
I see Messi's having a good night… pic.twitter.com/Y1Ec4o3oOJ
— Doc (@Doc_Joshi) April 19, 2017
Messi when his team needed him the most. Barca saying bye bye. #UCL pic.twitter.com/oVBZbjjTjx
— Robert B. Wiede (@IamAliRaza7) April 19, 2017
And naturally, it was enough to bring out the odd Photoshop effort…
Messi_on_the_street_break_dance.mpeg pic.twitter.com/f476m65JLL
— Felippe Garcia (@Garcia_Itaipu) April 19, 2017
Catch up with this week’s episode of 888Sport Football Friday Live
