When Lionel Messi was booked for scoring an illegal penalty for Barcelona vs AC Milan
Lionel Messi is probably the greatest player to have ever played the sport of football.
The Argentine has seven Ballons d'Or to his name, two clear of his eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
However, things aren’t going too swimmingly for Messi since his move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer.
Messi has scored just one goal in 12 Ligue 1 appearances for PSG this season. And on Monday night, he couldn’t prevent Mauricio Pochettino’s side from crashing out of the French Cup at the hands of Nice.
After a 0-0 in 90 minutes, the match went to penalties.
And while Messi, wearing the No.10 shirt, scored the opening penalty of the shootout, Nice went on to win 6-5.
Despite being arguably the greatest player of all time, Messi doesn’t actually have the greatest record from 12 yards. During his career, he’s missed 29 penalties.
One of those ‘misses’ according to the history books came against Celta Vigo during the 2015/16 season when he passed the ball for Luis Suarez to score. One of the cheekiest penalties we’ve ever seen.
But Messi has a history of being rather naughty from the penalty spot. And we wanted to remember another incident back in 2011.
It came in the Champions League between Barcelona and AC Milan at the San Siro in 2011.
Barca won 3-2 but the match will be remembered for Messi getting booked for his illegal penalty.
Messi stepped up from 12 yards and completely stopped his run-up before making contact with the ball. It fooled Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati before Messi rolled the ball into the empty corner.
However, Milan weren’t having any of it.
Before the ball had even crossed the line, the defenders were protesting Messi’s actions. The previous year saw a rule change stating that players were