Lionel Messi celebration: Why Barcelona star banged his head and blew kiss at the camera Messi was the star of the show as Barcelona won 4-2 at the home of English football.
Spurs were sunk by stunning goals from Philippe Coutinho, Ivan Rakitic and two from the Argentine ace. Barca raced into a two goal lead before the break, although Harry Kane pulled one back after the break to give the Premier League side hope.
Messi had other ideas though, scooring just four minutes after Kane. Erik Lamela then tried to trigger a comeback with a 66th minute strike, but Messi again did the business, firing home in the 90th minute to end Spurs’ chances.
And his unusual celebration after that final goal grabbed the attention of fans inside Wembley and those watching on around the world. Messi ran to the side of the Wembley pitch and tapped himself on the head, then blew a kiss to the crowd.
Some were puzzled what the Barcelona star was up to, and what the celebration meant. And Spanish outletSPORTreport this morning that the celebration was directed at his two chilldren.
They say Messi always plays with his kids on his mind, and dedicated the goal to them. Tottenham defender Kieran Trippier acknowledged Messi put on a sparkling show.
“These are the games you want to be involved in. You dream of playing in games like this and especially against players like Messi,” the right-back told BT Sport.
“He was unbelievable in the game. We all know the quality of a player that he is and sometimes it’s magic to watch.”
He referenced Messi having been close to scoring two more, and said conceding the early opener had been a major blow to Tottenham’s plans.
“All the boys were looking forward before and to go 1-0 down it’s difficult against a side like this,” Trippier said. “The boys gave everything out there and the second half I thought was much better.”
He defended goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, whose dash from his line proved costly for Coutinho’s early goal.
“It was his decision to come out and try to go for the ball. We’ll defend him 100 per cent,” Trippier said.
The England international added: “We just keep on going. Barcelona were the better team on the night. We’ve got to take positives out of the game. We’ll recover and reflect on the game and see where we went wrong.”