15 Years Ago Today: When Lionel Messi scored his own version of ‘Hand of God’ against Espanyol
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Argentina superstar Lionel Messi is widely regarded as the greatest football star to grace the game. Since his emergence onto the scene, the Barcelona man has often been compared to his Argentina compatriot and football legend Diego Maradona. One incident particularly led to an intense comparison between the two – the Hand of God goal.
Diego Maradona was involved in one of the most controversial goals when his famous ‘Hand of God’ goal led to England’s defeat in the FIFA World Cup final 1986. A similar controversy erupted when Barcelona played against Espanyol in 2007 as a young Lionel Messi was on the rise.
Barcelona were trailing by a goal against Espanyol until the 43rd minute. Just then, Lionel Messi came to the fore, albeit with his hand, thus reproducing his own version of the Hand of God moment. Although the Espanyol players reported the mishappening to the referee, the official paid no heed to their claims and the Messi Hand of God goal was allowed.
Lionel Messi went on to score again in the second half. However, the game ended in a 2-2 draw after Espanyol scored a deserved equalizer in the injury time to bag a point from the game.
The 2006-07 season went down the wire with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla all within touching distance of La Liga glory
Going into the penultimate round of matches, the title could go either to Barcelona, Real Madrid, or Sevilla. Madrid led the way by virtue of their superior head-to-head record, but everything hung in the balance as Los Blancos faced a tough trip to Real Zaragoza as Barca hosted Catalan rivals Espanyol, with Sevilla away at Real Mallorca.
Barcelona’s draw against Espanol and final day win against already relegated Gimnastic wasn’t enough to dethrone Real Madrid’s lead at the top and were eventually crowned champions of Spain. Had Barca not been stunned by their local rivals and subsequently thrown away the title, Messi’s ‘Hand of God’ may still be a much bigger part of football folklore.
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