Lionel Messi headed into to Sunday's El Clasico without scoring in Barcelona's previous six meetings with their fierce rivals.But with the La Liga effectively title on the line, the Catalan giants needed a win and needed their big players to step up.It was starting to look like it was going to be one of those games for Messi after the opening exchanges, though.The Argentine was viciously taken out by Casemiro early on as well as being on the receiving end of a stray elbow from Marcelo which left him bloodied, but not beaten.Despite playing most of the half with tissue in his mouth to stem the blood flow, Messi still produced a bit of magic to drag his side back into the game.Casemiro had given the hosts the lead with a close-range finish after Sergio Ramos's volley hit the post.But Messi grabbed the equaliser in typical Messi fashion.The 29-year-old latched onto Ivan Rakitic's pass, took one touch to go into Madrid's box and another to epically embarrass Dani Carvajal into taking a wild air kick.His final touch was a brilliant finish past Keylor Navas into the bottom right corner - see the video below.They do not get much better than that!As you would expect, Twitter exploded into life by Messi's latest sweet strike. Here's the best reaction:

It was Messi's 46h goal of the season and has kept Barca in the title race - for now.