Cristiano Ronaldo Celebrates Lionel Messi's Record Being Surpassed By Real Madrid Youngster

Cristiano Ronaldo was spotted celebrating with the crowd as his eternal nemesis Lionel Messi struggled and saw one of his records broken by a Real Madrid youngster in El Clasico Sunday.

Ronaldo returned to Bernabeu Sunday to witness Real Madrid beat Barcelona in La Liga as Messi saw a record broken by Vinicius Jr.

The Real Madrid youngster netted the opening goal against Barcelona in El Clasico and surpassed a record held by Messi in the process. “Leo” held the previous record this century after scoring a hat-trick in 2007 for Barcelona. But the 19-year-old now becomes the youngest player to net in the fixture this season.

Vinicius Jr broke into the penalty box and via a deflection from former Manchester United man Gerard Pique, he put Los Blancos 1-0 up. Mariano Diaz joined the party and gave Los Blancos the win and consigned Barca to their fifth league defeat of the season.

Despite losing in the end, Barcelona had their chances. Messi had a one-on-one saved by Thibaut Courtois in the first half before being denied by a fantastic last-gasp tackle by Marcelo as he closed in on goal.

Messi and Ronaldo have made the Clasico one of soccer’s most intriguing fixtures for almost a decade with both of them smashing records on a regular basis. And though Ronaldo is out of the picture this time, he still kept the Messi vs. Ronaldo rivalry going by joining the crowd as the Argentine struggles before his very eyes.

Vinicius Jr. set the new benchmark in front of a celebrating Ronaldo as Real Madrid went back to the top of La Liga with the 2-0 win.

To put this into context, Messi has failed to find the net once since Ronaldo left Spain for Juventus in the summer of 2018. Real Madrid have struggled to come to terms with the exit of the Portuguese striker over the last two seasons but looking at how things are going, it appears that Messi hasn’t been the same player he was since Ronaldo’s departure, Goal.com reported.

The 32-year-old has now gone five Clasicos without finding the net, or even providing an assist, a run that curiously coincides exactly with Ronaldo's Madrid exit. Messi last scored in Ronaldo’s last derby clash that ended with a 2-2 in May 2018.

Another El Clasico passed by with Messi not being able to make an impact. And for the record, it has been 11 times Messi has failed to score in his previous 15 El Clasico appearances in all competitions.