Courtois ‘too late' in closing his legs to Messi, Conte heaps praise on the best in the world

Before the game started, there was a tifo – a sort of choregraphy with the giant letters imprinted with the words ‘God save the King’. On closer look one could find the Barcelona emblem on the middle of the sentence and Lionel Messi’s image in the middle. He is their king. The one true king of the Camp Nou and on a night where Barcelona needed inspiration to overcome a historically difficult opponent, Lionel Messi rose above the rest.

Messi was mesmerizing from the start and he scored within the third minute of play, starting a one two with Ousmane Dembele before a deflected ball fell to Luis Suarez and the Uruguayan played a cheeky flick onto Messi’s path -- as if there was not intervention in the move and Messi had just gotten the return pass from Dembele alone, and then the Argentine finished with an inexplicable nutmeg finish through Thibaut Courtois’s legs. Messi would go onto score his second goal with another nutmeg shot past the goalkeeper -- a trick shot of unfathomable genius to reach his 100th Champions League goal. 

Chelsea's Belgian goalkeeper admitted he made mistakes but said he must take that on the chin. Indeed it is not the worst thing in the world to be at the receiving end of Messi's magic. After all plenty of players in the last decade have been late to close their legs to Messi.

"(For) the first goal I didn't expect Lionel Messi to shoot from that angle and I was too late in closing my legs. It was a mistake on my part," said Courtois.

"It's annoying but I don't think I have to hide inside. I have to come out and be a man and show you made a mistake and move on."

Chelsea coach Antonio Conte was in awe of the Argentine and he could help but compliment Messi as the duo met after the final whistle. Conte had put an arm around the Argentine as if to feel the genius of the man himself and also because he knew that the Barca number 10 had been the deciding factor in the match. When you come up against a worthy opponent -- the best performers compliment without guilt and last night Conte opened up.