About last night: The surreal Messi-Ronaldo entanglement

Last night's European football action absolutely had it all.

The UEFA Champions League's Round of 16 stage witnessed Kylian Mbappe's last-gasp winner, leading to Paris St-Germain edging past Real Madrid 1-0 at home. Elsewhere, Pep Guardiola's Manchester City ran a 5-0 riot at Lisbon, scoring a whopping four goals before the interval while the red half of Manchester bounced back in the English Premier League, courtesy of a Cristiano Ronaldo opener. Amid all the drama and glamour bestowed on the night, football fans could count themselves lucky, yet again, to be alive in the era of two megaliths of the game – Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.  

Messi and Ronaldo did not play against each other on the night, but how the two modern greats entangled themselves with a common thread was nothing short of surreal. More on Messi-Ronaldo's inseparable connection later but let us briefly revisit the match-of-the-night played at the Parc des Princes.   

PSG had quite deservingly won against Los Blancos, who eventually paid the price for fielding with a defensive mind-set, the likes of which is uncharacteristic of the Madrid side, historically renowned for their attacking style of play. It was surprising to see Real being made to wait till around the 40th minute to complete several passes in succession, up until which they conceded a few half chances and kept a menacing Mbappe and Co at bay.  

However, with the away goal no longer a factor from this season's UCL, Real's intention, of coming out of the knockout's first-leg with a draw, had a valid point as they would have the advantage of the backing of their home fans at the Santiago Bernabeu during the second leg.

Nevertheless, the charges of Carlo Ancelotti kept their shape intact and patiently waited for Mauricio Pochettino's men to commit unforced errors in defensive transition. Following resumption, Real survived a penalty scare as well after a subdued Lionel Messi's attempt, which lacked precision from La Pulga.

Messi's placing-shot at the bottom corner was brilliantly saved by Thibaut Courtois, who always seems to make the goal post appear smaller than usual due to his six feet seven inches stature. Courtois might have been one of the strong man-of-the-match contenders after that save but Mbappe left no room for doubt as he struck the killer blow in the dying minutes, placing between the legs of the lanky Courtois after availing a through-pass from the left.  

Mbappe scores the last-gasp winner through the legs of Thibaut Courtois as Militao, Vasquez and Valverde anxiously watch from behind. Photo: AFP

It was Mbappe who won the penalty and had threatened throughout the game, combining with the fullback Nuno Gomes from the left flank while Marco Verratti kept pulling the strings time and again against his illustrious midfield counterparts, comprising Luka Modric and Tony Kroos. Veratti's link-up plays with Messi were a treat to watch at times.

Real were not interested to press Messi in the upper areas of midfield, who was seemingly operating at optimum efficiency, still finding his feet in Paris, still a pale impression from his majestic Barcelona self of the bygone days. One could not blame Real though, for they, out of all teams in the world, know best what even an off-song Messi is capable of.  

Now, coming back to the Messi and Ronaldo connection, it feels that the universe keeps conspiring to bring the two inseparables under the same frame of reference time and again.

When Messi stood up to take the penalty in Paris in the early phase of the second half, he already surpassed Ronaldo as being the player with the most number of penalty attempts in UCL. Meanwhile, the game at the Old Trafford between United and Brighton, which began roughly at the same time as that of Paris', had featured the same nil-nil scoreline until then as well.

What happened in the next couple of minutes might make one wonder if we are all living in a fabricated reality, a reality catered to relentlessly feed us feats from a certain Argentine and a Portuguese. Do any of us remember what was like before the time Ronaldo and Messi began gracing the football field?

Anyway, Messi went on to miss the penalty, not the first time he did it, and  became part of a record that he would not be proud of, to say the least. French great Thierry Henry now finds company in Messi as the player with the most number of penalty misses (5) in Champions League history. The 35-year-old, so far, had missed five of the 23 penalties he attempted to score, and the first one Messi had failed to drive home against Madrid after seven attempts.

Quite ironically afterwards, as if telepathically fuelled by Messi's miss, Ronaldo struck the all-important goal at the Old Trafford minutes later in real time, and ended his six-game goal-drought in the process.

In the end, all went well for the two. Messi's side won against the 13-time UCL champions while the 37-year-old had decided the 2-0 victory for United at the Old Trafford.

The latest penalty miss on the big night might have fuelled the GOAT debate between the Messi and Ronaldo camps somewhat. But at the end of day, irrespective of which camp one finds themselves in, can the ardent football lovers really imagine life without Messi and Ronaldo playing?

So, it would be wise to just sit back and savour every bit of the stardust that these two inseparables materialise on the pitch.