Lionel Messi: When Diego Simeone applauded Barcelona legend after he broke Atletico hearts

Diego Simeone must have been relieved when Lionel Messi departed Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain last summer.

When Simeone became manager of Atletico Madrid in 2011, Messi was in the peak of his powers at Barcelona.

Simeone made Atletico one of the best teams in Spain but Messi always seemed to have success against the Madrid club.

According to Transfermarkt, Messi has scored 24 goals and recorded 32 assists in 43 games against Atletico.

He has broken Atletico fans’ hearts on numerous occasions in the past.

And one of the most iconic times he did so was on December 1, 2019.

The match between the twoLa Liga giants was goalless going into the final moments.

But Messi went on to win it for his side with a piece of brilliance in the 86th minute.

Messi picked up the ball roughly 40 yards on the right hand-side.

He drove towards goal, played a one-two with Luis Suarez and then curled the ball magnificently into the bottom corner.

Footage captured Simeone’s reaction to the goal. It’d be understandable if he was raging due to his side going behind so late in the game.

But that’s now how Simeone reacted. Instead, he just held his hands out as if to say ‘what can you do?’ before applauding the Barcelona legend’s brilliance.

A video showing the incident has emerged on Twitter once again and you can view it below…

When Diego Simeone applauded and gave up due to Messi. pic.twitter.com/6AQ46zbR1K

A truly classy goal from Messi and a brilliant reaction from Simeone. After the game, Simeone said about the goal, per Tribuna: “Because with a great goal like that, all you can do is applaud. The move, when the counter-attack started, had the smell of great danger. He scored a ‘golazo’.

“Barca handle that situation very well. And they