In the 61st minute of this evening’s marquee Champions League matchup between Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid, Lionel Messi had a golden chance to send his old rivals on the way to being knocked out of the illustrious competition.
Kylian Mbappe dazzled on the left side, drawing out a reckless challenge as he surged past Dani Carvajal, leaving the referee to rightly point to the spot.
Messi stepped up against the side who were his sworn enemies during his time at Barcelona but there was no fairytale as a lacklustre penalty was batted away by Thibaut Courtois.
Courtois dove down to his left and saved Messi’s spot-kick, which seemed closer to the middle of the goal than it was to the bottom corner.
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Lionel Messi ? Thibaut Courtois from 12 yards…
The big Belgian comes out on top!
This could be a huge moment in the tie.#UCL pic.twitter.com/8i4GZAZxqK
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) February 15, 2022
Pictures from BT Sport.
PSG have dominated Los Blancos but haven’t been able to break the deadlock, just as it looked like they were gifted an opportunity to do so, Messi was thwarted by Courtois.