Messi's opening goal led to furious protests from Espanyol players after he appeared to turn the ball home with his hand, but the Argentine would only say afterwards: "My goal? With the hand? My first goal does not matter now. What really matters is that on Sunday we will have to win and Madrid must not.

"We had the victory and the leadership in our hands… and in the final minute everything was lost. It is difficult to describe how we feel.

"We were crazy with joy, we knew that Madrid were losing 2-1 in Zaragoza and that we could even have scored to make it 3-1. But now I am devastated, depressed."