BARCELONA, Spain — Lionel Messi sprinted straight past the goal. He ran away from Paris St.-Germain’s players, who lay stricken on the turf. As his Barcelona teammates hared after Sergi Roberto, an improbable hero on an impossible night, Messi peeled off, toward the fans.
When he reached the edge of the field, he leaped on top of an advertising board and held his arms aloft, raised to the gods. He paused there, perched precariously, for a few seconds, and then he fell into the heaving, delirious mass of worshippers who awaited him. The crowd, senseless and mostly shirtless, seemed to swallow him whole.