Lionel Messi

For Barcelona, it was the perfect script. Messi's goal with the last kick of the game, the 500th of his career, helped bury rivals Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo. The 3-2 victory saw Luis Enrique's side leapfrog "Los Blancos" at the top of the table as the season enters its final stages.

In a seesaw game, Casemiro gave Madrid the lead before Messi leveled. A thunderous strike from Croatian Ivan Rakitic gave Barcelona the advantage, before James Rodriguez seemed to have secured a point for 10-man Madrid with five minutes remaining.

Barcelona became the first team in Champions League history to overturn a four-goal deficit in a knockout tie as a stoppage-time goal by Sergio Roberto completed an extraordinary 6-1 victory over Paris St Germain.

Edinson Cavani looked to have wrecked Barcelona's dreams by volleying in an away goal to make the score 3-1 but two late strikes from Neymar set up a thrilling finale before Roberto scored to seal a 6-5 aggregate win for the Spanish side.

Murtaza Ahmadi was shown dressed in a blue-and-white-striped plastic bag with Barcelona and Argentina star Messi's name and number etched in pen on the back in January.

The image, which garnered global attention after it was posted on a Messi fan site, sparked a manic search by fans to find the six-year-old from Jaghori, southwest of Kabul.

Now, almost 11 months later, a series of images and videos posted on social media by Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee Tuesday showed Messi and Murtaza meeting for the first time.

The South American trident made their mark just four minutes into a clash Luis Enrique's side would eventually lose 3-1 to old rivals Real Madrid, Suarez - making his Barca debut following a four-month ban picked up for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini during the 2014 World Cup - teeing up Neymar to open the scoring at Santiago Bernabeu.

Two years later, MSN are, without a shadow of a doubt, the most potent attacking force in world football.

With the help of Opta, we pick out some of the key numbers from the past two years of MSN.

The superstar forward was brought off during the second half of Barca's 1-1 LaLiga draw against Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou on Wednesday.

Barca later confirmed that the 29-year-old is set to miss around three weeks of action with a groin strain, with Messi having suffered a similar injury during the last international break with Argentina.

And Bauza has hinted at an air of hypocrisy from Barca, claiming the Catalan club are guilty of overusing their star player.

A hat-trick from Lionel Messi, plus goals from Neymar, Andres Iniesta and Luis Suarez's double, gave Luis Enrique's side all three points to banish memories of Saturday's shock LaLiga defeat to Alaves.

Messi rifled in an early opener and he combined superbly with Neymar to double Barca's lead after Moussa Dembele had seen a penalty saved by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Contract negotiations are set to be opened with the 29-year-old in the near future, with Messi's current deal set to expire in June 2018.

Bartomeu is understandably keen to tie Barca's star man down to a longer deal, but he conceded the ball will be in Messi's court.

"[Messi] has all the years he wants [with Barcelona]," Bartomeu told ESPN FC.

"Lionel Messi is the best ever to play football in the history of the world and he plays with us.

The prolific attacker was forced to pull out of the Argentina squad for the upcoming 2018 World Cup qualifier against Venezuela, having previously guided them to a 1-0 win over Uruguay after reversing his decision to retire from international football.

Messi underwent a series of tests on Monday to determine the extent of the knock.

Barcelona have now confirmed the forward's adductor issue and have made it clear Messi will have to lighten his training load ahead of this weekend's match at Camp Nou.

 Messi left Newell's for Barca at the age of 13 and has gone on to become one of the greatest players of all time, winning the Ballon d'Or on five occasions.

The 29-year-old has previously indicated a desire to end his career in Catalonia, but he appeared drawn to a Newell's return during an interview with Telefe's Polemica en el Bar in his homeland.

"I would love to [return]," he said. "It is something I have kept an eye on because it was my dream as a child.

"Obviously my life started to change and went another way, but I have no regrets.

Soler was speaking alongside technical secretary Robert Fernandez at a news conference to mark the conclusion of a transfer window where the LaLiga champions were busy both in terms of new arrivals and securing key performers.

Neymar, Sergio Busquets and Javier Mascherano all penned extended deals at Camp Nou and Soler is keen to build on this work.

Along with designs on fresh terms for midfielder Ivan Rakitic, Barca are eager to tie the remaining parts of their stellar attacking triumvirate down.