Lionel Messi scored a 75th-minute equaliser to dash Chelsea's hopes of a famous victory over Barcelona in Tuesday night's Champions League last-16 first leg tie.
The Argentine put his side in the driver's seat heading into the second leg at the Nou Camp but also broke a personal goal-drought against the Blues in the process.
Messi, who has netted 535 career goals, had never scored in eight previous meetings against Chelsea but ended that run by tucking home from Andres Iniesta's cut-back to hand his side the share of the spoils..
And, as ever, social media was quick to react to the little magician bagging his first goal against the west Londoners.
Barcelona's official Twitter account commemorated the moment with an animation of Messi winking beneath the caption: 'Leo Messi n̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ scored against Chelsea.'
The Catalan side followed it up with an image of Messi celebrating with Iniesta with two goat emojis symbolising the 'greatest of all time'.
Blues Talk took a significantly dimmer view of Messi's strike, blaming Chelsea for gifting him the goal with a misplaced pass from Andreas Christensen and Cesc Fabregas' failure to control the ball leading to the equaliser.
The account tweeted: 'Well that was a f****** stupid way of giving Messi his first goal against Chelsea' while Rana was in no doubt where the blame lay: 'Fabregas gives Messi his first goal against Chelsea'.
The Barcelona superstar's rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo was also a topic of discussion and NFL star JJ Watt's fairly innocuous tweet of: 'Lionel Messi is very good' was met with an scathing response from Stroby.
'Stop. Ronaldo is the best player,' Stroby said. 'And as far as Messi is concerned tonight's game. Messi got lucky. First goal against Chelsea in eight meetings'.
While Messi's equaliser ended his goal drought against the Blues, it's worth remembering Barcelona play in La Liga and Chelsea in the Premier League.
Mikey Wilson tweeted: '"First goal Messi has scored against Chelsea" Forgot he plays against theme every season home and away'.
seizer
362
Ronaldo has played Chelsea in 15 games and has scored only once despite playing 4 seasons In England so how's that better than Messi's one goal in 9 matches? in the champions league messi has 18 goals against English teams and Ronaldo has 11... so who has the better stats against English teams?
RYANLEW
156
Stop To Compare These Two Legends
BarcelonaManCityFC
131
Why is everybody hating Messi after scoring his first goal against Chelsea, no one realises that Chelsea is a really good teams and if you look at the stats of the Champions League goals against English teams, Messi has 18 and Ronaldo has 11. You all should respect him cause football is a really hard game, it’s not as easy as all the assholes think. This is a milestone for Messi and Ronaldo has only scored one against Chelsea in 18 games (four seasons at English League) compared to Messi’s one goal in nine games! Everybody who are tweeting that about him are supporting the worst player in the world. And Fabregas never wanted to give the goal to Messi, Messi can do whatever he wants and he can intercept passes and score like a boss. So... SHUT UP HATERS 🤫🤫
Go_barca
95
Messi don't give damn attention outside the pitch he doesn't mind what people speaks about him or else. maybe Ronaldo does but Messi don't.
Always Messi10
77
they are haters with different but radical opinions but do you think messi will be reading them and feeling bad or demotivated NO!!! cause he is the best player in the world of all time and brings happiness to people through football and he has millions of fans supporting him. Be it Messi or ronaldo we should respect their efforts.[messi]
Nationhope
35
People always carry on injustice when it comes to comparing Messi to Ronaldo. They will always prefer Ronaldo over Messi simply because Ronaldo have played in more than two leagues, but that's not the comparison here. What we are looking at here the performance even in one league... Messi is obviously the best in the world, no doubt.....
yetoz
28
They are being petty. Barca played better. Chelsea did well. Very well with little. They played a defensive game. But barca was the more offensive team and in the end pressure burst the pipe. Messi the best ever. He been proving it from the season start.
Kharisma1
20
Messi is the greatest of all time and I knew he was going to break that record in this round of 16 against Chelsea! Like it or not he is the best and your opinion is not needed😍 up Barca